Drug testing, background check bill gets final House O.K. (NC)

[alp227]

Source: Raleigh News & Observer

Welfare recipients could be drug tested or fingerprinted under a bill that got its final House approval on Wednesday in a 92-21 vote.

The Department of Social Services already performs background tests and drug assessments on welfare applicants. But House Bill 392 threads stricter policies into county DSS’ current practices. It requires drug testing of reasonably suspected illegal substance users applying for the Work First program, which gives cash benefits and job training to families. It also beefs up background checks to ensure people applying for food stamps or Work First aren’t parole or probation violators, and don’t have outstanding felony warrants.

Opponents to the bill have maintained that this measure is part of a larger plan to erode the state’s safety net for the less fortunate.

“My big concern…is how we balance the criminal justice issue of getting the bad guy here without catching everybody, and fingerprinting everybody,” said Rep. Rick Glazier of Fayetteville, a Democrat.

Read more: http://projects.newsobserver.com/node/28085

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The Washington Post had this lengthy Sunday feature on NC right wing politics and "Moral Mondays" on May 26: "In North Carolina, unimpeded GOP drives state hard to the right"

[Archae]

1. Meanwhile, the banksters continue to get welfare for the wealthy.

[Cryptoad]

10. Hows about

all the wealthy Agri-biz welfare subsidies......?

[Socal31]

12. Come on, you are acting as if 20-30 somethings on Wall Street would do drugs.

There is probably more powder in the bathroom stalls at most firms than on Paula Deen's face.

[Skittles]

2. CAN WE DRUG TEST THOSE WHO START SENSELESS WARS AND CRASH THE ECONOMY PLEASE

[TroglodyteScholar]

16. Agree. It should be a given that members of congress be willing to submit to drug testing.

I mean..if they're not doing anything wrong, they don't have anything to hide.

[tofuandbeer]

3. So if they're taking drugs...what? They go homeless, starve, suffer and die

because some jack with millions/billions doesn't want to share. Christ. They already don't pay their fair share of taxes. Now they are pissed about what little they do pay?
I hate humans.

[Scairp]

14. Worse

If a parent happens to smoke a joint their children could go hungry because of this bullshit. But I guess they can drink themselves into a stupor and that's perfectly fine. Why is it ok for a parent to drink away the welfare benefits but not get high once in a while? I must be very stupid because I don't get it.

[MrSlayer]

15. No. They go to a for-profit prison.

Which is really what this is all about.

[Safetykitten]

4. Gee, if there was only a person of a national stature that would say something....

[Turbineguy]

5. Companies move off shore

so they don't have to pay for this nonsense.

[Lordquinton]

6. It'll go on the books

they will get to say they're doing something, and in a few years it will get removed because 0.001% will be found to actually test positive for drugs and they are paying millions for it, just like what happened in Florida.

[greymattermom]

7. if they are fingerprinted

they should also automatically get a state ID, valid for voting.

[Crow73]

8. Cutting their nose off

A majority of the US population is white...
So a majority of welfare recipients are white.

You see how this works? The GOP base will not be please with their teabag leaders for doing this.
Plus Florida showed this is pricy.

[Cryptoad]

9. Does this mean

that the children of drug users are not entitled to any aid?

[blackspade]

11. Punish the poor and the weak.

It's the Republican way.



How about they drug test and run background checks on recipients of tax breaks and subsidies?

[bunnies]

13. AND they have to pay for their own test!

Yeah, because people out of work or needing assistance have an extra hundred bucks laying around.

Holy shit. AND:

North Carolina Senate blocks testing themselves when passing welfare drug testing bill

(snip)
At the same time, senators rejected an amendment offered by Democratic state Sen. Gladys Robinson that would have drug tested lawmakers, the governor and cabinet secretaries.

“We receive state funds, we represent the law, we institute policy,” Robinson told senators on Monday night. “So, it should not be above any of us to submit to drug screening.”

Republican State Sen. Jim Davis said that he did not mind being tested, but insisted that he would vote against the amendment because it had no mechanism to provide him with a reimbursement for the $100 test.

Instead of voting on Robinson’s amendment, state Senator Tom Apodaca (R) used a substitute amendment as a parliamentary maneuver to kill the the proposal.
(snip)

more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/23/north-carolina-senate-blocks-testing-themselves-when-passing-welfare-drug-testing-bill/