Finally! Requiring drug testing to receive walfare. (Miami: insurance, unemployment)

[MiamiResident]

Originally Posted by angelscorpio

After a lot of debates Miami and Florida state will be the first state in the union that will require drug testing to receive welfare. The Rep. Rick Scott "If Floridians want welfare, they better make sure they are drug-free."
Applicants must pay for the drug test, but are reimbursed if they test drug-free.
Applicants who test positive for illicit substances, won't be eligible for the funds for a year, or until they undergo treatment. Those who fail a second time will be banned from receiving funds for three years!
Naturally, a few people are crying this is unconstitutional. How is this unconstitutional? It's a legal requirement that every person applying for a job has to pass drug tests in order to get the job, why not those who receive welfare?

Let's get welfare back to the ones who need it, not to those who won't get a job.
I AGREE, DO YOU?

Floridians want Rick Scott to pay back the 6 billion dollars he stole from Medicare.

[himain]

Yes, this should have been implemented years ago. Also, they should stop giving out money to women who pop out 7-9 kids for their monthly stipend...

[MiamiResident]

Originally Posted by himain

Yes, this should have been implemented years ago. Also, they should stop giving out money to women who pop out 7-9 kids for their monthly stipend...

Men and women 18 - 30 years of age should be banned from collecting unemployment benefits. Any healthy individual at that age range who is unemployed for more than one month is just a lazy parasite and a burden to tax payers.

[Sweetbottoms]

it has been proven to be a waste of time. And your money... Yet people think this is the answer to it all, not all these people are crack addicts living in the ghetto eating our tax dollars. Some need legit help

No Savings Found in Florida Welfare Drug Tests- NY Times

Same was found in Tennessee

Tennessee discovers less than 1% of applicants use drugs

Missouri, which started drug testing for welfare applicants this year, spent almost $500,000 over eight months to conduct 636 drug tests that identified only 20 people who tested positive out of 32,000 people who applied for assistance, a rate of 0.0625%.

Florida spent $115,000 to test 4,086 recipients from July through October 2011, yielding only 108 positive tests, a rate of 2.6%. After the courts stopped the program because it violated recipients’ rights by forcing them to undergo testing without any prior suspicion of drug use, Florida had to reimburse recipients who had lost their benefits $600,000. In the end, Florida lost $45,780 on the program.

Oklahoma spent $83,000 to test 1,890 people for drugs from November 2012 through May 2013, and caught only 83, a rate of 4.4%.
• Utah spent $32,000 to test 6,007 people for drugs from August 2012 through October 2013, nabbing only 14 people, a rate of 2.3%.
• Arizona tested 87,000 people from 2009 through 2012, but got only one positive test result

Waste of Money

[Huckleberry3911948]

if they try that here you are going to see ACLU and NAACP lawyers crawling the walls.

[boxus]

Originally Posted by MiamiResident

Men and women 18 - 30 years of age should be banned from collecting unemployment benefits. Any healthy individual at that age range who is unemployed for more than one month is just a lazy parasite and a burden to tax payers.

You do realize what unemployment is, and where the funds come from, right?

[EBWick]

Kicking poors has become popular in America. Shows how one dominant group of "normals" can lord it over the lower classes. Next thing you know they'll be taking babies away from poors.

[UrbanCrossroads]

Originally Posted by himain

Yes, this should have been implemented years ago. Also, they should stop giving out money to women who pop out 7-9 kids for their monthly stipend...

Yes, it's nobody's duty to have children. You can live to be 100 years old without ever having children, and you'll be just fine. People who can't afford to be having children shouldn't be having them.

[MiamiResident]

Originally Posted by boxus

You do realize what unemployment is, and where the funds come from, right?

From tax dollars

[Winchupuata]

They already found the vast majority of people on welfare are not doing drugs and that this would be a waste of money so this just looks more like a move to appeal to the right wing vote then actually trying to achieve anything worthwhile.

Originally Posted by believe007

One question came to mind- what drugs disqualifies them?
Since pot is legal in so many places.......

Exactly, what drugs disqualify someone, heroin, cocaine, weed? Would someone who smokes weed on the weekend be in the same boat as a crack addict?

Originally Posted by straight shooter

I don't get it. On one end we seem to be moving towards legalizing certain drug and on the other end we seem to be further penalizing those who take it.

It is Florida after all, not the most progressive of places.

Originally Posted by believe007

I still think its a good idea-
This was a comment from your link--

Lets drug test all the cop, politicians, and ceo's before they get their paychecks too.
They make more than welfare recipients and would save taxpayers tons of money.

I absolutely agree- too bad that'll never happen

Agreed.

Originally Posted by unkindraven

Is this a joke? I agree with not liking florida- not sure if you're aware buddy but they tried this mess a while back and it failed, miserably. This was the looniest idea ever. The vast majority of people on welfare don't do drugs. THEY JUST DON'T! It's a wonderful right wing talking point to paint welfare recipients as lazy, fat drug abusing, baby machines (or thugs) who love to milk the system but thats only a sliver of the population. Shame on people who degrade and humiliate those who have fallen on hard times.

Oh and im sure you can find some cases.... like 2% because you know, our tax payer money being wasted is so critical to hunt down those few people.

P.S. - I have never been forced to pass a drug test for a job and i'm glad because it's insulting.

Agreed as well.

Originally Posted by deboinair

Not a Rick Scott fan at all, but I do agree with this. Too many people beat the system, smoke whatever and sit on their butt all day. While I'm working.

While I no doubt believe you can find some people like that as there will always be some like that in every society, people who take advantage of the system and do nothing but mooch, these are a small minority, very far from "too many". Most poor people work hard and are hardly lazy moochers.

Originally Posted by MiamiResident

Men and women 18 - 30 years of age should be banned from collecting unemployment benefits. Any healthy individual at that age range who is unemployed for more than one month is just a lazy parasite and a burden to tax payers.

That mindset scares me a bit, we don't know personal circumstances and many different things might be happening that prevent someone from finding a job even if they're trying their best. And why the arbitrary 30 year old cutoff? Why not 36? or 40? Or 28?

This is the same mindset as those people that think the poor are poor because they deserve it as they're all lazy bums that don't want to do anything when that has been proven time and again it's not true.