You read that right. Lawmakers have a new plan for saving money. It's called 'starving people who use drugs.' That'll teach 'em. Got privacy? Not if your nosy conservative lawmaker has anything to do with it. It's only a matter of time before peeping tom lawmakers will be putting cameras in our bedrooms so that they can withhold food stamps, welfare, and unemployment insurance if their prying eyes spy something other than the hetero missionary position.
But wait. . don't we pay the taxes that fund food stamps, unemployment insurance and welfare assistance? Yeah, we do. And we also pay the taxes that fund the salaries of the privacy-invading control freak lawmakers.
So how about some random drug tests for lawmakers? Since drugs are always on their minds, they must be using some, especially West Virginia's drug obsessed Republican Craig Blair. Why, oh why do 'we the people' put up with such idiot control freak lawmakers?
Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing. The effort comes as more Americans turn to these safety nets to ride out the recession. Poverty and civil liberties advocates fear the strategy could backfire, discouraging some people from seeking financial aid and making already desperate situations worse. .
"Nobody's being forced into these assistance programs," said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature who has created a Web site - notwithmytaxdollars.com - that bears a bobble-headed likeness of himself advocating this position. "If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?"
Blair is proposing the most comprehensive measure in the country, as it would apply to anyone applying for food stamps, unemployment compensation or the federal programs usually known as "welfare": Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Women, Infants and Children. Lawmakers in other states are offering similar, but more modest proposals. .
Drug testing is not the only restriction envisioned for people receiving public assistance: a bill in the Tennessee Legislature would cap lottery winnings for recipients at $600.
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