Hoping to collect unemployment?

You'll need this first.

If you don't have a job, you must be a drug addict. If you don't have money, you must be a drug addict. If you're struggling to feed your kids, pay your rent, keep the electricity on, heat your home—you must be a drug addict.

At least, that's the latest brilliant budget-balancing idea from Republicans. Via the New York Times:

Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Such laws, which proponents say ensure that tax dollars are not being misused and critics say reinforce stereotypes about the poor, have passed in states including Arizona, Indiana and Missouri.

Residents of those states might consider themselves lucky, though. Because in Florida, not only are those seeking assistance required to submit to a drug test; they're required to pay for the drug test too. Shockingly, "enrollment has shrunk to its lowest levels since the start of the recession." Because if you can't afford to eat, you probably don't have spare cash laying around to pay for drug tests either.

But at least the state will reimburse them if they pass the test. Which really means that those precious taxpayer dollars Florida is trying so hard to save are actually being wasted on completely pointless drug tests. That's some real fiscal conservatism right there.

And since it's worked so well in Florida:

This year, 36 states considered drug testing for recipients of cash assistance from the major welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; 12 states proposed it for unemployment insurance; and some also considered making it a requirement for food stamps, home heating assistance and other programs.

Think about that. You get laid off of your job and can't make ends meet, but in order to collect unemployment, you're going to have to first prove you're not a drug addict. It's nothing personal. It's just that in these austere times, taxpayers have a right to ensure that you're not using your food stamps for "illegal things":

“Working people today work very hard to make ends meet, and it just doesn’t seem fair to them that their tax dollars go to support illegal things,” said Ellen Brandom, a Republican state representative in Missouri.

Of course, this is all bullshit. As the Center for Law and Social Policy reported earlier this year:



Proposals for mandatory drug testing of TANF recipients are based on stereotypes and not evidence. Proponents often claim that drug testing will save money; however, this is based on a false assumption that many applicants will be denied benefits. Random testing is a costly, flawed and inefficient way of identifying recipients in need of treatment. Better alternatives exist and are already being implemented to address drug abuse among TANF beneficiaries and ultimately reduce their barriers to work. Moreover, universal random drug testing may well be unconstitutional.

And, just as predicted, Florida's new "prove you're not a drug addict" policy isn't really catching all that many drug addicts:

Since July, 7,030 passed, 32 failed and 1,597 did not provide results, according to the state. The state said it does not track what drugs caused failures, but elsewhere the vast majority of cases involved marijuana.

So yes, the new law discouraged some residents from seeking aid, which supposedly saves the state money. But the vast majority of those who did seek aid passed the test. Which means that taxpayers ended up reimbursing 7,030 people for drug tests that were administered in order to save taxpayers money.

That's some interesting math, isn't it?

But the math isn't even the point. The point is that in this era of austerity and sacrifice, when Republicans believe even relief to disaster victims must be offset with further cuts, the problem isn't people like Nicole:

At Operation Breakthrough, which provides day care services to low-income women here in Kansas City, Nicole, 22, who asked to be identified only by her first name, began to cry as she described trying to provide for her three children on a monthly welfare check of $342, plus $642 in food stamps.

It's not Nicole's fault that our economy is in a ditch. It's not her $11,000 a year in government aid that's bankrupting us. And forcing her to prove she's not a drug addict isn't going to balance any budgets.

But this new enthusiasm for drug testing Americans who have the misfortune of needing help does do one thing: It shows just how bad the class war has become, when Republicans will bend over backward to bail out billionaires and protect private jet owners, but when it comes to the jobless, the homeless, the hungry—and their children—screw 'em. As Herman Cain—card-carrying member of the richest one percent—so perfectly explained:

If you don’t have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself!

Oh, and don't forget to pee in this cup.

