If you receive Welfare, Medicaid or food assistance (SNAP), you would be subject to random testing. This would indicate whether you were using the system to fund your habit on the backs of the taxpayer. The same taxpayer that funds the very police department burdened with your illegal activities.
This bi-partisan bill was introduced by Kentucky state Rep. Lonnie Napier who told HuffPost would "get people off drugs" and save money for the state. I'll tell you this conversation has happened everywhere people gather to discuss our municipal budgets.
To hear about someone actually bringing this to the floor somewhere intrigues me. I'm going to be paying close attention to this one.
Napier quoted in HuffPost: "I believe there is a place for public assistance for those that really need it, but I don't think there should be public assistance for those using it to buy drugs. It's widely known here and all over the country that they'll take the food-stamp card and buy good groceries with it, and then swap them for illegal drugs. My deal would only be random testing, and this would put the fear in people to keep them drug-clean because they would lose their public assistance if they show up with illegal drugs in their system."
I see the bill would not alert authorities for prosecution when the results turned up positive for drugs, but the intent is to get people off drugs with the threat of losing assistance. Works for me.
They thought the effort wasn't worth the cost, but I'd say the testing caused the clients to stop doing drugs once the law went into effect. Think of the savings in law enforcement.
Napier also quoted: "I think it's time somebody stepped up to the plate and tried to help people get off of drugs. If you're continuing to let people have free handouts and they're using it for illegal drugs, then I guess we're helping them do it."
Considering the recent sting in Kingston and the millions in SNAP funds that Ulster County will never get back, this might be a worthy discussion locally.
7 comments:
I see you've gone utilitarian on us again. Your brothers & sisters in the "give it all away" Democratic party are going to have some strong words for you tomorrow.
Dont you know that giving people free money and services helps the drug trade. Which helps the law enforcement business. These are the constants in why we need to continue raising taxes. If you lower the case load, you'll alter the status-quo at DSS.
Get with the program Madsen.
Frank
Madsen, write the resolution!!!!!!
Go for it Mike.!! It is about time that this be instituted. The whole fiasco we recently experienced(Sunoco stattion) has probably been going on longer than anybody realizes. I don't mind a TEMPORARY hand up but it comes to a certain boiling point when that is abused on the backs of us taxpayers. If you request money from government entities be prepared to have us "up in your business" or an even better solution is that you work it off(your debt). Individuals might be hard put to use or abuse drugs if you have had to physically toil away for that "entitlement" ex.food stamps and such...
Take it one step further
If you on public assistance you will be given birth control
IF you become pregnant while on our tax dollar we will cut you off...
The time is here where we cannot afford to pay people more because they are having more kids to increase thier salary
Since they are already on public assistance lets start to educate them as well, hopefully a fe can learn and find employment
Why should I pay for more kids due to uneducate, irrsepsonsible parents?
why don't we start drug testing people on Social Security too? dirty test = no social security check
4:56...SocSec and Unemployment are the act of collecting on a prior investment. You pay in as a means to sustain yourself based on what you earned. The rest of the SafetyNet sources are untethered taxpayer funded programs. There is a distinction. So No, they shouldn't be tested. It's their money.
4:46. Don't make such an inane remark. That is money that has "invested" from workers paychecks. I should say that has been taken from our pay. A big difference than taking money you have never worked for or paid taxes on.
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