N C governor, Mayor McCheese is set to continue his policy of kicking anyone and everyone who is already down. He's about to sign into law mandatory drug testing for anyone applying for public assistance. Why are they doing this? State after state has done this and ended up wasting much more money than they saved. The governor of Florida was the first to introduce this nonsense, and as it turned out his brother was the owner of the testing company that was used. Arizona tested 87,000 applicants and had 1 positive test result. Florida tested 51,000 applicants and had 21 positive test results. Over five million dollars of tax money was spent in just two states to deny 22 people welfare benefits. So that is the reason they made this law different, requiring the poor to pay for the test themselves. But if they pass the screening they may be reimbursed.
What are they going to do if someone tests positive? help them get into rehab and get clean? Educate them on the dangers of addiction? Help them get a job? No, of course not; they will simply dump them from the the program, and how will that help anyone? And so what if someone is using drugs? Does that mean they are unworthy of help? What about tobacco or alcohol? Why is it that conservatives are always looking for a reason to punish someone they don’t approve of? Well you can't blame them, they are only following their own religious guidelines, only help those who are clean, sober, and perfect.
All of this is simply another attempt to reinforce the myth that if anyone is in need it must be their own fault, and to blame the poor for their own condition. believing this serves to soothe the fears of the middle class, that as long as they are smart and personally responsible they could never end up poor themselves. As though all you have to do is choose to be personally responsible. It keeps anyone from having to feel empathy for those less fortunate or guilty for not helping. It also distracts them from noticing what the wealthy have been doing to them for the last three decades. So much for their love of Constitutional standards when they hold everyone guilty until they can pay to prove themselves innocent.
Why don't we ever have drug tests for politicians? That I could support!
© C. Erich Dunne ; july, twenty-thirteen.
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