Michigan to Test Welfare Recipients for Drug Use

Michigan Governor Snyder. Ain't he a peach?
Image from source, Think Progress

There are reasons why Republicans have a reputation for being both tight-asses and just flat mean. Here's one, in fairly bold letters. There is no particular evidence that welfare recipients are larger than average drug users as a population (in fact some studies show the opposite). So, what is the point of this kind of legislation, exactly? Shaming? And hey, where are all of the conservative "values" people when the children of those found to be using drugs are denied food and medicine? What about the children?

And of course, I'd like to know if any government assistance should require drug testing of recipients? Corporate welfare, perhaps? Why not?

[Excerpt]

Michigan Governor Signs Bill Requiring Drug Testing Of Welfare Recipients
 
Welfare recipients in some Michigan counties will soon be tested if they’re suspected of using drugs, under a set of bills signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder this week. The Senate and House bills, which were signed into law Friday, will create a yearlong pilot program in three counties that will screen welfare recipients and applicants to determine whether or not they’re suspected of using drugs. If they are, the applicants or recipients must submit to a drug test. If the test comes back positive, they will be referred to a treatment program, and if they choose not to enter the program, they will lose their welfare benefits. Applicants and recipients will also lose their eligibility for welfare benefits for six months. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Rush Limbaugh Connects Cleveland Kidnapping with Hawaii Five-O

On Monday night, after hearing all day about the three women (and one child) held captive over a decade in a Cleveland, Ohio house, I turned on Hawaii Five-O on CBS, as I'm wont to do. And I was surprised to find that the episode's plot bore some resemblance to the awful real-life story. Most of the details were different, but it dealt with long-term kidnapping and imprisonment of women. I thought nothing more than that it was an odd coincidence, and was surprised there wasn't a disclaimer, or a scuttling of the episode until later in the season.

Leave it to Rush Limbaugh, classy guy that he is, to try and connect the plot of the episode--having to do with welfare fraud--with the real-life tragedy. And then, to Cleveland voting for Obama? Hey, Rush, America voted for Obama! He's really such a pig.

[Excerpt]

Limbaugh links Cleveland kidnappers to Obama and welfare benefits

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday found a convoluted way to use the CBS drama Hawaii Five-0 to link the story of three kidnapped women in Cleveland to President Barack Obama and welfare benefits. Limbaugh admitted that he had “no idea” about why Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight had been kidnapped and then were able to escape after 10 years. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

And Mitt Romney Keeps Lying

Yeah, yeah, politicians lie. Usually, we use euphemisms like "spin" or "exaggeration," but good ol' Mittens seems to be hanging his entire campaign on a series of what can really only be considered lies. Especially when you consider that even when his points are debunked, he just keeps going with the ads, unheeded. Here's the latest.

[Excerpt]

The scandal behind Romney's new attack ad


First, a little background. Some Republican governors this year asked the Obama administration for some new flexibility on welfare standards -- the governors had some ideas about moving folks from welfare to work and needed the White House to sign off. Obama agreed -- existing work requirements would stay in place, but states, if they want to, can take advantage of new flexibility when it comes to experimenting with existing law. . .

Read more at: MaddowBlog

Georgia Passes Drug Testing for Welfare

Eric Cantor has nothing to do with this story, but sort
of epitomizes the "meanness" I'm talking about.

I've been saying for a long time--at least as long as the life of this blog--that one of the most prominent aspects of conservative/Republican policies is meanness. There seems to be a competition between Republican legislators to see who can be the meanest. Vaginal probes. Voter restrictions. Stand your ground. Often, they have very reasonable sounding justifications for their policies. Which is understandable, since they are focus tested and word sculpted by think tanks, ALEC and Frank Luntz within an inch of their being.

But Voter ID laws didn't arise from public outcry or the specter of voter fraud. They were engineered to limit certain segments of the voting public from voting. Vaginal probes aren't necessary medically or for any other reasons. They're mandated to shame women who'd dare go through a (legal) abortion. And these "drug tests for welfare" laws have nothing to do with the actual percentage of recipients who are drug users. It's another shaming technique. It's mean. You think we'd have learned our lesson from the Tom DeLay/Karl Rove/Dick Cheney era of politics, that Republicans given power are just f***ing mean.

[Excerpt]


Georgia signs welfare drug-testing bill into law

Georgia’s Governor Nathan Deal has signed House Bill 861 into law, a controversial measure which will require drug testing of all applicants for public assistance, according to the Associated Press. The Social Responsibility and Accountability Act was passed by the state’s deliberative bodies in votes that broke down along party lines, then signed by Governor Deal on Monday night. . .

Read more at: Raw Story