Should we Drug Test welfare recipients monthly

In response to #25 I agree there are situatuions I have no problem helping someone get back on their feet if they have 8 kids. Some circumstances are different. If you go on welfare and continue to have more children and expect others topay for them. That is a problem.

Many people are on welfare by choice and they ruin it for the ones who would rather be working to earn money. A friend of mine was on it for awhile because her ex would not pay support. She was mortified and she only felt that way because of the stigma attached to it. She worked her butt off in order to get off of it. It was in jobs that no one really wants but she wanted too pay her own way more. That is respectable!

pamiety wrote:

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What happens if a women loses her job and can't find employment. Her children father isn't around and she was married. Her 3 or 4 children were born in a solid institution however life happens. She is not entitled to help? I think people always assume that people are on welfare by choice.
Must we forget welfare money is only available for 5 years and you must work. When the welfare reform went into effect you did not see any difference in your check.
Why should a poor person be subject to to monthly drug test. By the blessings of God I've never been on welfare but the way the economy is going we all might have to. Think before you make judgment.

If you dont use drugs, you have nothing to worry about

Is peeing in a cup too much to ask for a free food, money and rent?

I'll tell you what....If the government gives me 1500 bucks a month, I will give them ALL my pee

pamiety wrote:

<quoted text>
What happens if a women loses her job and can't find employment. Her children father isn't around and she was married. Her 3 or 4 children were born in a solid institution however life happens. She is not entitled to help? I think people always assume that people are on welfare by choice.
Must we forget welfare money is only available for 5 years and you must work. When the welfare reform went into effect you did not see any difference in your check.
Why should a poor person be subject to to monthly drug test. By the blessings of God I've never been on welfare but the way the economy is going we all might have to. Think before you make judgment.

What world do you live in, you didn't see any difference because the 5 year rule isn't enforced. People are on welfare for a lifetime and will continue to do so as long as the state allows them to get away with it, goes back to people doing there jobs

Life Coach wrote:

<quoted text>
If you dont use drugs, you have nothing to worry about
Is peeing in a cup too much to ask for a free food, money and rent?
I'll tell you what....If the government gives me 1500 bucks a month, I will give them ALL my pee

Where do you get 1500, a month from? If I'm a working mother and going to school I have to make arrangements with my work schedule, day care and school to drop urine. More then likely I would not have a car. Please. A moronic statement at best.

Just drug test them and send them to work. What is so hard about working for a check like everyone else. No one ever paid me to sit on my butt and play house!

Get Real wrote:

<quoted text>What world do you live in, you didn't see any difference because the 5 year rule isn't enforced. People are on welfare for a lifetime and will continue to do so as long as the state allows them to get away with it, goes back to people doing there jobs

As long as they have a dependant child, they will never be kicked out. They are like Gerber..."BABIES ARE MY BUSINESS, MY ONLY BUSINESS". Welfare PARASITES!

troof wrote:

<quoted text> As long as they have a dependant child, they will never be kicked out. They are like Gerber..."BABIES ARE MY BUSINESS, MY ONLY BUSINESS". Welfare PARASITES!

AMEN.

matt wrote:

Then, when they fail and get kicked off of welfare, you have a bigger problem. Drug addicts won't quit just because they lost public assistance. This sounds like a good idea but it is short sighted.

You MUST be on welfare to defend NOT drug testing. The money WE (the taxpayers) save will more than cover the cost of testing, because there will be NO ONE on welfare. Less people collecting, less money paid out, less drug tests to pay for. Eventually all of them will be bounced. THIS IS A GOOD SLIPPERY SLOPE.

It is not as simple as everyone thinks. You have to hire and pay for people to administer these tests. You have to either tell people to show up,(which the drug users won't)to get tested. Or you have to pay people to drive around in cars, payed for by us, gas payed for by us, and drive around to all their houses knocking on doors and asking them to get drug tested. If you try to get people to come down to some office you will run into problems with people working 40+ hours, don't have their own transportation, and can't make it in during day hours. Think about the situation in reality. How would the state implement this system? There are so many details you don't think about. Then these people who get booted will HAVE to look for assistance else where. They will get it from other government run, subsided programs.

And no, I am not on welfare. That is dumb to think that and I have never touched a cigarette or sipped alcohol. I am more against using drugs than anyone else on this board but this hypothetical program just won't work, just the way welfare today doesn't work. There is no easy fix.

matt wrote:

It is not as simple as everyone thinks. You have to hire and pay for people to administer these tests. You have to either tell people to show up,(which the drug users won't)to get tested. Or you have to pay people to drive around in cars, payed for by us, gas payed for by us, and drive around to all their houses knocking on doors and asking them to get drug tested. If you try to get people to come down to some office you will run into problems with people working 40+ hours, don't have their own transportation, and can't make it in during day hours. Think about the situation in reality. How would the state implement this system? There are so many details you don't think about. Then these people who get booted will HAVE to look for assistance else where. They will get it from other government run, subsided programs.

Great points Matt...but most of these people don't think "in reality"...These are the same people that would rather let the Senecas build everything and anything tax-free in Buffalo, so they can fleece people out of their hard-earned money, all the while complaining about how THEIR tax dollars are spent.

Realists? LOL...not likely.

If they were, they would realize that one of the most popular myths is that welfare is a serious drag on the economy. Actually, it barely registers on the radar screen. The most vilified form of welfare is Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which allegedly gives poor mothers a financial incentive to avoid work and have babies. But AFDC formed only 1 percent of the combined federal and state budgets. "Food stamps", as most people call them, also took up 1 percent. Both programs cost $24.9 billion each, comprising 1 percent each of the combined federal, state and local budget...Now this doesn't include SSI, Medicaid and Medicare programs, but then again, the middle class whites and senior citizens are the majority collectors of those "social spending" programs....So I'm sure these "realists" wouldn't complain about what their mom and dad are getting from the government.

I shouldn't have to tell you how this stacks up against the budget for the Defense Department...but it's alot more than 1 or 2% of the budget.

Here's an interesting thought, For the multiple people who address the "Work for Welfare" debate...Working for the Healthcare system in NY, I have seen one of the areas into which the "welfare" people are slotted to work in order to get off welfare. Are you all aware that people being forced off welfare are pushed into classes that train them to be CNAs? This is one of the "field choices" that they can select from when it is time for them to be removed from the welfare roles. For those who don't know, CNAs are Certified Nursing Assistants. These are the individuals who end up caring for our elderly in nursing homes.Hands-on treatment day in and day out is provided by these individuals. Unfortunately for the elderly, many of these people do NOT want to work at all...much less in a field that requires you actually care about what you are doing. Hence, our very moms, dads, grandparents, etc..end up in the hands of people who are not choosing this work out of a desire to care for others, but rather as what they see as the lesser of evils in a forced work program.
Don't get me wrong, not all those who end up as CNAs to get off the welfare roles feel this way, but many do.
I'm all for enforcing a work for welfare program..but let's make people work on something other than human beings, who can and do sometimes suffer at the hands of those who never wanted to care for anyone. Perhaps garbage pick-up, or parks clean-up..or some other type of work that will not affect the lives of those most vulnerable among us.

matt wrote:

And guess who will pay for all those drug tests? You and me. Some tests are super cheap and others run a few dollars a piece, but it adds up fast when you have so many to test. Are you going to make them pay for it? Guess where their money comes from, you and me. I agree that no one should be doing drugs but I sure as hell do not want to pay for their problems anymore than the rest of you.

Don't want to pay for their problems???****...you already do!!!! Give them a check and let them buy crack!!!! No problem there,right???

king of op wrote:

you can't bbuy drugs or alcohol with benefit cards. it's ANOTHER stupid idea to WASTE more of the taxpayers money.
the state needs to hold true to it's policy of these recipiants looking for jobs . if they feel they are above working then cut them off.
i remember the state saying a few years back they would eliminate "welfare lifers". i don't think they have enforced this policy at all. someone who's been on the welfare system for years upon years is showing they have no intention of looking for an actual job....take their benefits away then.

True...but you can get your local arab shop to front you the balance, minus a small bit for them selves.

Aid For Dependent Children may make up only a small portion of the budget, but it's STILL an incentive to make more babies.
When you are on welfare, the fact is MORE BABIES = MORE MONEY. There's no way around it. More babies = more housing, more medicaide, more free lunch money, more everything.. even more WIC to sell.
Again, I still think if you tell every parent on welfare, if your child aged 12 to 19 gets knocked up while you are on welfare, you automatically lose all benefits. Watch how quick the teen pregnancy rate will drop.
Things that make you go hm....

It's bad enough we have to pay for so many dead beats. Now you want us to rehabilitate them? When we get our tax bill each year it makes me sick. There thinking of ways to cut the budget. Start with the welfare system. It's always feel sorry for the poor needy. I have a heart but my purse is empty at the end of the week. Open grocery stores just for the food stamp recipents thats a good way to start getting control on how there spending our money. It cost us 10,000 last year in insurance I don't see anyone handing me any hand outs. We work hard for everything we have and its getting harder on everyone. My one son works two jobs. The other one works six days a week and our 15yr old 3 days a week. It's called work ethic I learned growing up. You want something in your life you have to work for it. There no work ethic they teach there kids the system and it goes on and on. New York your a disgrace to the hard working class.

Absolutely! Since the working class are drug tested, welfare receipients should also be. To hell with the invasion of their privacy when it comes to us footing the bill!

I'm drug-tested to PAY taxes while the ones who TAKE my taxes aren't.

YaYaHood wrote:

Aid For Dependent Children may make up only a small portion of the budget, but it's STILL an incentive to make more babies.
When you are on welfare, the fact is MORE BABIES = MORE MONEY. There's no way around it. More babies = more housing, more medicaide, more free lunch money, more everything.. even more WIC to sell.
Again, I still think if you tell every parent on welfare, if your child aged 12 to 19 gets knocked up while you are on welfare, you automatically lose all benefits. Watch how quick the teen pregnancy rate will drop.
Things that make you go hm....

"AFDC" is called something else now

Anybody know? I forget