Wisconsin
Related: About this forumScott Walker blames Wisconsin's poor for being poor .... Gov. Walker Would Drug Test the Poor
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Scott Walker blames Wisconsin's poor for being poor https://nyti.ms/2skZS0r #wiunion #wiright #p2 #ctl #wiresist
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Gov. Walker Would Drug Test the Poor
The Editorial Board
3-4 minutes
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. Susan Walsh/Associated Press
As he prepares to run for a third term, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, ever the devotee of low-road, right-wing politicking, is hoping the Trump administration will allow his state to be the first in the nation to mandate the drug screening of childless individuals who apply for Medicaid help.
It borders on immoral, Lena Taylor, a Democratic state senator, warned, accusing Mr. Walker of indulging in a meaningless contest to see how cruel and discriminatory we can be to the poor.
Across the aisle, Senator Leah Vukmir defended Mr. Walkers draconian initiative as it advanced last week in the Republican-controlled Legislature. We know how to take care of our own, she declared.
After failing on the national stage in the 2015-16 Republican primary jamboree, Mr. Walker has doubled down on his ideological roots back home. He is calling for drug testing of not only Medicaid applicants but also some food stamp applicants, so as to make welfare a trampoline, not a hammock. Fourteen other states have limited drug testing for some state welfare benefits. Mr. Walker, ignoring warnings that the courts are likely to find his goal unconstitutional, nevertheless wants to play the pioneer in forcing drug tests on people applying for Medicaid.
The politics of sloganeering that blames the poor for being poor did not get far with welfare officials in the Obama administration, who cautioned that the Walker initiatives violated federal law. But Mr. Walker obviously sees better prospects in trying again with the Trump administration. If he succeeds, mandatory drug testing for Medicaid enrollment would affect an estimated 148,000 of the 1.2 million people receiving state health care support. They are either totally impoverished or members of the working poor earning less than $12,060 a year. Refusal to be tested would result in denial of health care for six months, with repeated state confrontations likely to follow.
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muntrv
(14,505 posts)beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)Collecting taxpayer provided benefits?....I have no idea why this is an issue..but the drug test should be limited to hardcore use, not pot.
LakeArenal
(28,847 posts)Studies have proven that few applying for benefits are using illegal drug.
They aren't excluding pot.. So I guess you better not apply for benefits..
No one should have to give up DNA to the government. period.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)Drug testing. I was for 30 yrs. so it's not a big deal and shouldn't be a point of concern at all.
kacekwl
(7,022 posts)Besides being unnecessarily cruel to the majority of those who need these benefits. The government these days has alot more cheats and scammers than those who use benefits. Right Mr. Walker.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)dembotoz
(16,841 posts)In a long series of dick moves
Just another way to slow or deny benefits
Just another waste of money-cause these tests are always useless.
Just another diversion of resources from doing Something actually beneficial
I could go on and on
LakeArenal
(28,847 posts)Your term "most" subject to random checks...
Not random and everyone... Scott Walker and his ilk first. Want all that great health insurance... Post your pee.. Wanker.
You are even subjective... Not pot... In your world, why not?
When did it become okay to drug test employees anyway? It's not right to subject 99% of the innocent people to catch a drug user. Cops can't just pull over a car. They need reasonable cause before they can pull over a driver and test them.
Who said painful? Shameful and authoritarian. And it's expensive.
kacekwl
(7,022 posts)take a pee test before you were handed your piece of bread or you medication.
getting old in mke
(813 posts)All in different mixes, from roads to food and drug regulation, to many others. I'm presuming Walker wouldn't propose drug-testing of everyone in the state.
All this does is single out the poor because they are poor.