Reason 3,024,654 I laugh every time I hear someone claim that the GOP is about getting government out of people’s lives:
Via Matt Welch at Reason, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has proposed an amendment to the jobs bill requiring that recipients of unemployment insurance or welfare benefits get drug tested before they get their checks. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
People seeking unemployment benefits or welfare would have to first pass a drug test under a proposal Sen. Orrin Hatch will try to add to legislation extending the social safety net during this time of economic turmoil.
Hatch … said his idea would help battle drug addiction and could reduce the nation’s debt. He will try to get the Senate to include his amendment to a $140 billion bill extending tax breaks and social programs this week.
“This amendment is a way to help people get off of drugs to become productive and healthy members of society, while ensuring that valuable taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted,†he said after announcing his amendment. “Too many Americans are locked into a life of a dangerous dependency not only on drugs, but the federal assistance that serves to enable their addiction.â€
I’d really like to find more constructive ways to engage, instead of mock, but transparent bullshit like this makes it hard.
tx2vadem
Maybe he worries that these people will be operating heavy machinery. Really, I think the problem is that Sen. Hatch just cares too much.
Though that does make me wonder now what percentage of people on TANF and unemployment abuse illicit drugs.
James Young
Not sure I agree that attaching conditions to the receipt of money is a particularly ideological issues, but I agree that it’s a tragedy when purported Conservatives adopt the sleazy tactics of the far Left.