Posted on 01/31/2015 2:18:27 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Scott Walker has had a good week. The press is googly-eyed over him, waxing on about how he could just win this thing, and he's still rolling on his high from last weekend's Freedom Summit. Of course, that's not really something to write home about when you're besting the likes of Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee.
He's got that populist message down pat just like his other friends on the campaign trail. Income inequality! Deteriorating middle class! And he's so concerned about those things he's going to govern on that basis, right?
Walker has a real problem on his hands, because while he's basking in the afterglow, he still has to govern. It turns out he's not doing that awfully well.
Wisconsin’s low-income workers and some members of Congress are speaking out against Governor Scott Walker’s call for making people on public assistance undergo a drug test. Governor Walker confirmed in a Q and A at the conservative American Action Forum in DC on Friday that the 2015 budget he will unveil Tuesday will include measures that cover those who need food stamps, Medicaid and unemployment benefits, among other programs for those in poverty.
Walker claimed his motivation for the controversial move was feedback he’d received from Wisconsin companies. “As I traveled my state, I hear employers, small business owners say, overwhelming: ‘We have jobs. We just need workers. And we need two things: people who know how to show up every day for work, five days a week, and gimme someone who can pass a drug test,’” he said.
Now here's how that plays out with real people who need assistance.
For Wisconsin workers who currently depend on public assistance, like 21-year-old Milwaukee waitress Peyton Smith, the burden of the law would be much more personal.
“For [Governor Walker] to put another barrier in front of us is like saying we’re guilty, but we’re not guilty,” Smith told ThinkProgress. “It’s already hard to go down there and file for government assistance. We have to report in every day, fill out papers. Now I have to take the time out of my busy schedule to take a drug test? Come on!”
Epps-Addison, who depended on food stamps when she began law school at the start of the Great Recession in 2008, echoed Smith’s difficult experience in signing up for public benefits.
“There were times even I couldn’t navigate the process, as a law student with a college degree,” she said. “The system is set up to disempower people and make them frustrated enough to give up before receiving the help they need.”
Smith, who has a three-year-old daughter and another baby due soon, works about 20 hours a week at Denny’s — though she has repeatedly requested full-time employment. Because it’s a tipped job, she makes just $2.33 an hour, and currently relies on food stamps to feed her family.
“I’m willing to work. I’m not lazy at all,” she said. “But the jobs we can get are horrible, low pay, and we can’t get the hours we need. As a parent, it just sucks. I want things that are healthy for her, but the fruits and vegetables she needs to grow as young child are expensive.”
Scott Walker, like the party he represents, is awesome at tossing around the simple solution sound bite. Need workers? Drug test the ones on welfare! Never mind that they're likely not skilled at building furniture or whatever jobs he's talking about. When employers say they need people to show up who can pass a drug test, what they're really saying is that they have some nice minimum wage jobs over here with long hours, shifts, and little in the way of pay and benefits.
And please, never mind about that pesky unconstitutional thing. Scotty will make that go away...somehow.
Hey, that's what they say....lol
I’m not “backing” Palin for president, especially since she is not running. I’m a Ted Cruz supporter, which just about everybody here but you already knows. However, I don’t see the left criticizing Governor Walker as a bad thing. Why do you?
You are correct. I had my numbers/ratios wrong.
Reply to the post in full or dont bother...cherry picking is a liberal trait.
“I have to do it, so they should too” is an adolencent argument.
“it’s not fair” is the same thing....
I bet you a 100 bucks in an FR donation it will get thrown out if passed....
Are you game?
Yep....the only thing this will accomplish is showing the left to be soft on drugs.
as if we didnt already know that....
Oh, I understand the game is rigged and not fair.
BTW, game for what?
100 bucks to FR in the form of a donation says the law gets shot down by a Federal judge if it passes.
>>Now I have to take the time out of my busy schedule to take a drug test? <<
What busy scheduled — YOU DON’T WORK!!
>>And please, never mind about that pesky unconstitutional thing. Scotty will make that go away...somehow.<<
There is no Constitutional issue here — the government can (and should!) put whatever restrictions and obligations it wants on providing benefits of any kind to anyone. The only thing required is the same apply to everyone.
People should learn the USC before trying to hide behind it.
Will the illegals he wants to let in have to be drug tested, or is this just for citizens?
Of course it would be shot down. You said yourself the game is not fair...Not fair means cheating, rigged, a bad deck, etc.
So there ya have it.
Ouch!
She's working 20 hours a week. Oh! The agony!
So you agree that trying to pass the law is a pointless waste of time...AND MONEY....since it will have to be defended in court if it passes and will surely lose...
As I said....it’s a good idea at face value.....but when you dig deeper....it’s a useless political gesture.
And I’m not Impressed with useless political gestures....even from my own party.
There’s one problem with Walker’s idea. This government has been rewarding bad behavior re: drug users for decades now. People that have never worked but made the choice to get hooked on drugs have been able to get on nice, cushy, taxpayer-funded drug disability monthly “social security” payments which often times are even more than those that paid into the system and did NOT make bad choices. I just don’t see it happening. Ever. It would be nice though.
Of course it is. It won't pass. Millions of gov employees at all levels are unionized. They won't tolerate random testing BS. As well as all those creating the laws and those judging others won't tolerate it either.
It's like Congress opting out of Obama Care, but creating law and rules forcing others to obey or else.
Agree that all prospective candidates should be thoroughly vetted.
But, I must ask you, what do you dislike so much about Walker?
Go, Baby, Go!!!!! That’s just what we need.
Interesting ... now if only Walker would call for the end of welfare. That would be the mark of a real conservative. I cannot for the life of me understand why Republicans don’t make the argument against welfare in its totality.
Amnesty.
So, basically, more likely than not a working stiff will have to get drug tested as a condition of employment. However, a “low income” person can claim part of a working stiffs wages without having to succumb to a drug test to make sure they are not spending the working stiffs wages on drugs
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