GOP class warfare: unemployed to take drug tests

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wants unemployment claimants to pass a drug test. Apparently Kingston wants the state unemployment compensation employees to rate people who apply for compensation on their probability of drug use.

The proposal comes as Congress is in the process of extending federal jobless benefits for people out of work six months or longer.

Kingston noted an overwhelming number of job applicants were flunking drug tests as the rationale for his proposal.this was according to one constituent. Kingston said:

I had an employer tell me of an overwhelming response for job openings. There was just one problem: half the people who applied could not even pass a drug test.

So the Republicans are crafting legislation based on hearsay from one constituent. What is funny about this is that the employer was unlikely to hire anyone who tested positive for drugs. So people the employer laid off were likely drug free,

Florida Gov. Rick Scott required welfare applicants to pay $30 for a drug test because he assumed those on welfare had a drug problem, too. Only 2.5 per cent of the welfare applicants failed. The low failure rate suggested that Scotts's premise was false and that the program was a waste of taxpayer dollars.

A federal judge halted the program. The judge agreed that Scott’s plan to test welfare recipients for drugs was costing the state money, despite Scott's claims that the program would actually save tax dollars.

In both of these examples, we have Republicans crafting laws based on class warfare assumptions that no study or factual body of evidence supported. 

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/jack-kingston-drug-test-jobless_n_1135991.html

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA  


Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.