The practice of drug-testing recipients of public assistance has been found unconstitutional on multiple occasions in other states, but Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is planning to push for such a policy during the next legislative session.
This is more than a solution in search of a problem and it’s not merely an unwarranted invasion of privacy that is probably unconstitutional. It’s an insult and an affront to the working poor and, as the Wisconsin State Journal points out, their children.
In Wisconsin, an estimated 836,000 people receive FoodShare benefits, about 40 percent of them children, according to the state Department of Health Services. As of last week, 39,958 people had filed weekly unemployment compensation claims, according to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. [...]
Spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said the governor will work with his Cabinet in the coming weeks “to craft a specific proposal,” which is designed toward “moving people from government dependence to independence.”
It is unintentionally and tragically hilarious for a the governor to say he wants to move people from government dependence to independence because Walker, as you may recall, made headlines last month when he said that $7.25 per hour is a living wage.
No one who is currently dependent is going to magically become independent without an increase in minimum wage which Scott Walker has rejected. Because $7.25 per hour is not a living wage and anyone currently living off of that is going to be dependent on multiple streams of assistance.
I imagine Walker’s alternative solution will be another tax cut that may provide the working poor with enough money to buy a cup of coffee. A cheap cup of coffee, not one of those six dollar Starbucks concoctions.
You can’t blame low voter turnout for Walker’s reelection because the state of Wisconsin actually saw record voter turnout for the Midterms and voters chose to reappoint Walker as their sniveling corporate manager in chief.
Voters shouldn’t be left off the hook.