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Subscribe to RSSFLORIDA: “If Floridians want welfare, they better make sure they are drug-free,” the New York Daily News reports. “Republican Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill on Tuesday that requires benefit recipients to undergo drug testing.”
“Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos was in full damage control mode Wednesday, the day after a St. Augustine radio host hung up on the U.S. Senate hopeful for refusing to answer whether he would support Rep. Paul Ryan’s controversial budget,” Roll Call reports.
VIRGINIA: “As a Senator, George Allen (R) co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and worked a pledge to keep marriage "traditional" into just about every re-election stump speech,” Roll Call reports. “But these days, as Allen tries to get his job back, he doesn't talk about gay marriage. A top campaign aide said the Senator keeps social issues on the back burner and instead talks with Virginians about the issues they raise: gas prices, jobs and the economy, and the need to rein in federal government spending.”
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Ban gay marriage, drug test welfare recipients, let children work for less than the minimum wage, ban Shialaw. birth certificates, papers please. For a minute there I forgot what country we lived in. The fringe has just gone to far.
I don't have a problem with the drug testing concept, what I do have a problem with is that Rick Scott's past company connections are the ones that will be reaping in the $$$ for implementing it.
Sounds resonable. Give the welfare recipients an incentive to clean up their act. This should be a law in every state. Except maybe California. That would make the great state of California the ultimate welfare magnet of the nation. Where you can stay high, and still live on free money.
Even if the Governor didn't stand to profit from drug testing welfare recipients, you still have the huge cost associated with the testing. The meager savings will be eaten up quickly by the cost of the drug testing.
i would rather my tax money be spent on catching those that are feeding off the system and using it to support their drug habit. I wouldnt care if it evened it out, at least i would have the satisfaction of knowing that these moochers arent getting my tax money.
Bilweeler Drug testing is not that expensive. Most major companies do it as a routine part of hiring. It cuts down on liabilities and promotes a safe and healthy work environment. I have no problem with this at all.
KSW:
You are correct, most major companies do drug testing during hiring. However, the cost is not big for most companies, considering there's damn little hiring going on. For those that are hiring, the costs are NOT minor.
Average cost for a drug test: $44.00. That is the cost ONLY for processing the sample. It does not include setting up the testing facility (usually a medical or similar facility), staffing the testing facility, and administrative costs for scheduling and performing the tests.
So, if a state tests 10,000 welfare recipients at the average cost just for processing the samples, it comes to $440,000.00.
Where drug testing is used, the rate of "positive" findings are small...1.54%. That means you could expect to find approximately 154 positive results in the 10,000 tests. Of course, the results would probably be somewhat less, as welfare recipients would be aware of the testing, and would then take evasive measures if they are drug users.
If you do the math, you will find that the cost of finding the 154 positive results is approximately $2,857 per person.
I think the current expression is that "we're broke." $440K to eliminate 154 welfare recipients is a waste of money we don't have.
Does Scott need to be drug tested regularly as an ex-con to make sure he's clean?
Do oil company excutives get drug tested before they get their 4 billion dollar welfare checks?
Forrest - do you actually think they get a check? The government is giving the oil companies money?
Really, that's your position?
Is this one of those fancy lawyer tricks. Do you think that I think they are not getting money? Not having to pay money you would owe and getting money is the same. They (oil execs) sure showed up to the hearings to protect something.
Damn right the Ryan plan is a hurdle.
You might collect some taxes from corporations, you might cancel subsidies for the oil companies, you might reign in the insurance companies, you took a trillion from the middles class for Iraq, you took a trillion more for the drug companies, and another trillion to bail out wall street (they were to big to fail which means they were to rich not to be rich anymore so we had to make them rich again). After all that you want more, by asking us to vote to throw our mothers and fathers to the dogs, and them to vote to throw us to the dogs. It's about time for the 80% that ain't going there to slap some sense into the other 20%, I don't mean actually mean spanking them like a spoiled child I mean it in a political sense. Screw it! If the whole world is going to end unless I give up Granny, then I will just hold Granny's hand and we will ride this damn thing till the freaking wheels come off.
Hell yeah drug test benefit recipients, implement this nationwide!!!!!
What do you do if they test positive?
The only defense I have seen so far with Ryan's budget proposal is that they have no plans to screw the old folks, They only plan to screw the younger folks when they get old. Yup, Thats gonna fly well
Drug test for welfare?? GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!! The only problems I see would be with cost of drug testing, enforcing it, additional staff and paperwork, and the under-poverty level disabled and Veterens who collect medicaid, food stamps, etc,,,,,,,,A lot of them are on prescribed opiates and narcotics for pain.
Medicare will be phased out in 15 years, as more and more new beneficiaries discover they cannot pay the 8K plus balance per year to the profit based health care insurers after the vouchers are used up. So far in the past 6 years, rates have gone up 10 to 40% a year. It will be much worse for the 65 and older crowd to pay out of their SS and retirement savings, if any. They will drop out, to buy food, and shelter, relying upon the emergency rooms for medical treatment, once their illnesses get to a point to allow them to be admitted.
The Right Wing plan to shrink the Federal Government is right on track, following 8 years of Bush II, Bush I, and Reagan tax cuts for the rich, which did not create jobs, and contributed almost 65% of our total national deficit.
We are almost bankrupt, the GOP goal to force smaller government at any cost, and we will be if the debt ceiling is not lifted, tax cuts ended, waste ended, spending cuts where feasible, and people put back to work.
Oh, that is right, the GOP controls the House, no increase in the debt ceiling unless the Country caves in to their demands for more, (on top of the Bush tax cuts) for the rich and corporate America to create jobs, phasing out Medicare under a plan doomed to destroy it, and privatizing SS, along with rolling back our regulatory agencies funding to end consumer protections, health and family protections, creating the perfect Oligarchy for the GOP to rule, subject to Corporate America's approval of policy.
Oh it's no problem the Governor owns a drug testing program, what a happy coincidence.
Wouldn't it be only fair if the rich people paid the same tax rate as the middle class does?
Drug testing will cost money, and of course there are welfare people scamming the system. There are scammers everywhere who should get caught. Look how many elected officials are scamming the system by doing nothing but blaming President Obama for everything and getting paid for it. The GOP leaders sit in their fine leather chairs doing everything they can to make sure President Obama fails - to hell with the country - the rich will survive and vote for the GOP, that's what's important.
And why should anyone care about who a person loves? Gay people should and must have the same rights as straight people. For the GOP, if you're not white, preferably male, rich, straight, and influential, they do not care about you. I feel that the GOP actually looks down upon the colorful middle class, we are beneath them.
Every time we have a GOP President, they spend/blow trillions of dollars with no plans of how to repay. Once the voters elect a Democratic President, the GOP unfairly puts past, present, and future blame on him. The GOP spends/wastes trillions, yet when Democrats dare to spend, the GOP are all of a sudden professional economists and soooo concerned about the debt. "WE can spend, but YOU can't" is one of the GOP's unspoken mottos.
And about the billions that will be spent on future malignant TV ads on both sides - it sure doesn't say much for the voters who will actually make their important decision on how to vote by who had the best (or worse) TV commercial! Your vote and my vote are powerful, so be wise and knowledgeable.
Lastly...I've wondered how many people on this blog have written and/or called their elected officials about their many concerns/beefs/opinions? All one has to do is read these 1000s of posts to realize we all have heated concerns/beefs/opinions. When I've written and called my senators, representatives, and our President, it's a great feeling of a certain kind of power that all of us voters actually have. So, MSNBC posters, get online, email your elected officials or call them with your many concerns. THIS is an enormous freedom that we all take for granted and what many countries on this Earth strive for.
"For the GOP, if you're not white, preferably male, rich, straight, and influential, they do not care about you."
Race bait much?
Bob, after everything I wrote, THIS is what you reply? Come on. Have you really looked at the faces of the GOP? Have you looked at FACTS of who the GOP supports and who they want to take away from?
Bob -- The Republicans do not care about people. In general, they care about capital, and when people and capital are opposing interests, the Republicans align with capital. Unfortunately for the GOP, governing is about people, about groups of people (societies) living cooperatively. The reason that President Bush's bad publicity after Hurricane Katrina exists and the reason that Rep. Cantor was derided for suggesting that the people of Joplin wouldn't get aid unless the budget were cut somewhere else is because that plays into the stereotype of the GOP as the non-people, pro-capital party. Even if our government defaults on its loans, if the banks collapse and the stock market crashes, people will still be living in proximity to one another and will still depend on government....even if there is no capital. So unless you can show that Republicans DO care about people, commenters will continue to believe the reverse.
Yes Kate I agree. I would love to see Republicans step forward and show us where they care about people.
The moonbat brigades who comment here need a drug test , there is no doubt they have imbibed the MSNBC Obama koolaid...if not, they have taken a paid position with a George Soros funded attack monkey organization like Media Matters.
Bob, toward me and others you don't agree with, why do you have to come back with childish insults and name calling? Does it really make you feel better? Don't you care how immature your replies are? Can't we all at least TRY to comment and reply like adults? I'm trying - can/will you?
K2mn, Bob is doing his feisty impersonation.
One difference, Feisty is a smart and caring person. Bob seems mean, like old man Potter from, "It's a Wonderful Life."
Taxpayers give Corporate Welfare to Oil Companies, Health Insurance Companies, Flood Insurance Companies, Rich Farmers, and significant other Corporations even bailed out WallStreet. So immediately all Corporate Welfare Reciepients should be Drug Tested, I agree totally with Forrest
Americans should be provided with a list of all Corporations who receive Subsidies/Taxpayer Dollars and exactly how much each company receives, including individuals, Farmers, and when and how often.
Republicans refuse to acknowledge that taking our Taxpayer Dollars and giving it to Corporations and Wealthy Americans is Corporate Welfare.
Do you know what they do with their corporate welfare checks, they have Martini lunches and snort drugs, why give tax dollars to drunks and drug addicts just because they wear a nice suit.
we'd save more money if we i.q. tested corporate executives, fund managers, bankers and politicians.
harder to cheat on an i.q. test.
What do you do if they test positive?
Here's the real question: Who told these GOP/TEA party-ers that they could force their narrow-minded religious beliefs onto all Americans. They are trying to blame President Obama for the failings of the previous! To add insult to injury the GOP/TEA players are the ones not providing enough "Revenue Enhancement" to help cover the short fall. They will protect the richest 2%-ers and the mega-corporations, while loosening the restrictions on Wall Street and Big Banks. Now they want to change the Modus Operandi for future retiring generations rather than tax their benefactors and add revenue to the kitty. Corporation subsidies should be lapsed and Congressional perks need to end.