PUBLIC OPINION > Welfare Recipients Should Take Drug Tests

When someone hurts someone else, then test them. Testing them before that is simply butting into someone's private life (including his/her body, of all things) without any reason. Yes, someone could get hurt. Someone can get hurt by making a pot of coffee too... but people do it every day. We don't stop doing things because of risk. I believe in my constitution. I also believe in personal responsibility. To me, that also means that I don't get to tell you how to live anymore than you get to tell me how to live... regardless where/how you get your money.
I also don't care if some welfare recipient smokes or injects or swallows something. It simply isn't my business.
Life involves risk.
The one thing our nation's got that separates us from the rest is our constitution. I don't want the US to be a nation where its citizenry have to depend on the government to tell them if/when/how to wipe its butt.

There is nothing wrong with wanting money to go to where is ought to. But the reality is, there is no perfect system. Wasting millions in hopes of catching a few is pointless. Usurping our constitution is not worthy of any amount of monetary savings. Were the programs we have now implemented more efficiently & the rules already established followed better, we wouldn't even have this conversation.
There will always be people who take advantage of others. That's life. But isn't it a bit more rational to give some poor person (who might/might not use drugs) subsistence living, than to literally pour money into the pockets of the already wealthy? There are so many areas where the government could make some real, actual changes that would save some real, actual dollar amounts. But instead, our attention is being diverted to catching some few poor, drug users & ensuring that they don't get anything... & that their kids don't get anything either... because we are a fair & just nation of caring & charitable individuals.

The whole discussion is simply so unbelievably hypocritical it's astounding.

Of course, that's right. There is something wrong. But that's when the department of child-welfare comes in & does its job.
You see, those bases are supposed to be covered already. If we allow our system to work the way it's set up to work, we don't have to sweat all these little things.

Yes, there are going to be individuals who take advantage of the system. Okay, that's bad & we need to curb as much of it as possible.
However, it shouldn't really be our main focus should it? You call yourself a Christian, right? So why don't you consider this:
Take that money away & the children are immediately in dire straights, the entire family is on the street. So, the family is divided without any money or prospects to be united... because the system does not work to unite families. Crime goes up because the drug user no longer has any way to get money for drugs. The children either fend for themselves & likely become criminals as well or they go into the system & will surely become criminals before long.
The thing is, just because someone is a drug user, does not make that person a drug addict, nor does it make them a bad parent. People take drugs for all sorts of reasons in all sorts of situations. But it isn't our business unless the person causes harm to someone.

1) Our constitution is an incredibly beautiful thing... let's leave it alone.
2) Giving a little charity to the poor is a hell of a lot better than allowing the already wealthy to continue to fleece our nation through subsidies, tax loopholes, etc. There are real, genuine areas where we can cut that will make actual impacts on our situation. This little bit we give to poor people is simply not worth the energy we're giving in comparison... not to mention that going after the tiny number of people we're going after ends up costing us more in the long run than we save. So, let's concentrate on the big fish & leave the little ones alone for a while. There really doesn't have to be a war on the poor... even the poor drug user. Don't those people already have enough against them? Let's squash the real thieves among us: the super-rich who pour our money from our pockets directly into theirs through all the government programs & unfair tax laws.

Well, the trouble is the way we think about several things.
1) Drugs. For whatever reason, our nation's population has the idea that people who use whatever drugs are either scum or not worthy or failures or scary.
2) Employers. For whatever reason, our nation's population has allowed employers to search our bodies before we work for them. People in various other nations hear about our drug-testing policies & are in shock that we would allow anyone to search our bodies as a requirement for employment before we have done anything to harm anyone else.
3) Insurance companies. For whatever reason, our nation's population has allowed insurance companies to dictate employment requirements in private firms.
4) Government. For whatever reason, our nation's population has gotten confused about the differences between private companies & government. Government is in place to serve the population. Private firms are not. Our constitution prevents the government from controlling our private lives, especially our bodies. If a private firm wants to implement certain hiring processes, as long as they do not give preference to race, they're pretty much free to do so, regardless of our abhorrence of them. But why would anyone encourage the government to expand its own control over individuals & usurp the Constitution even more than it already does? It simply makes no sense that The People would encourage further removal of our constitutional protections... no sense at all.

Look, I understand your reasoning. It sounds great. But it isn't, actually. Governmental search of a person's body without the person having done something to harm someone else first, really is not Constitutional at all... & frankly, it isn't even ethical.
I personally do not believe in private firms forcing drug tests before employing individuals. I find that absolutely contrary to our right to personal privacy, however it is not the government & therefore there is a definite difference. Once someone does something that causes harm to others, then a test would surely be in order. But insurance companies have made it impossible for firms to afford insurance without drug testing being a part of the hiring process. Again, the subject becomes incredibly complex. But the difference between private firms & government is very very clear & must be kept separate... no matter how "unfair" we feel it is.

On top of that, there is the cost of the program. In the end, it simply is not cost-effective. The taxpayer ends up having to pay more for the program because the number of recipients who test positive & are thrown off the system is too low to save enough money to justify the cost.

Well thought out response. Thank you.
May I point out that I look at it from a different perspective. I work in a heavy machinery industrial setting and I depend VERY heavily on how the people working around me are functioning. Do I want a person working beside me who may have smoked a joint on his lunch break and now he is feeling quite mellow? No way!
I support drug testing in the work place 100% because I look at it more towards a safety precaution.
On the same flip side, if I am required to submit to random drug testing to earn my pay then someone who is living off of the government should also because I have no problem with helping people who need help, I just have a problem with the possibility that the money I supply to them is being taken out of their mouths and being injected in their veins.
"our nation's population has gotten confused about the differences between private companies & government" I agree with that 100% but when you have the POTUS taking over a huge private company and firing the CEO himself while retaining 30% of ownership,,, The lines between Government and private industry just became alot grayer to our detriment.
"without the person having done something to harm someone else" The kids of these drug users who are on welfare suffer. My younger brother is a drug user and continually buys and sells WIC and welfare coupons to make money for drugs. It is a widespread problem. It is currency for these people.
Speaking about the cost of the program, the left brings up how we can not afford it but their analysis of it is if every person on welfare is tested every 6 months or year. I do not think that that is necessary. Every person on welfare would be subject to random testing, then just have quite a bit of testing at first then erratic in the future. Only test say 10%. The threat alone will cause many of the people to drop the drugs which could in fact get them off of welfare completely and back into the workforce. I see it as a means to get people out of the rut they have found themselves in due to drug dependency. Rehab is not motivational, survival and hunger is.

The problem has shown to be that in these programs, the taxpayer has to pay for the tests of those individuals who are not positive, making the cost/benefit ratio not work out to make them effective. The few welfare recipients who test positive & have to pay for their test as well as get thrown off the system, do not make up the cost of the entire program. The taxpayer just pays more in the end. (...& certfied mail? that costs loads more! Why would anyone be notified anyway?)

Remember too that a mother who collects welfare for her family is tested, while the members of the household are not. So, even if there are members of her family who use drugs, she might not use drugs & will likely pass the test. Of course, the money from welfare is not likely being used for drugs either. In FL, the number of welfare recipients tested positive & thrown off their system was between 2-4% & ended up costing the taxpayers even more than without testing.

Frankly, regardless of the cost/benefit factor, I'm not interested in having more programs that ignore the Constitution.
As a matter of fact, it really pisses me off when people stand up & demand things that are 100% against the Constitution.
People need to be responsible for themselves & stop demanding the government get invovled even deeper in people's lives. It is no one's business that someone uses drugs until that person does someone else harm.

Remember, there is no perfect system... not one. The way to make the system better is definitely not to expand government's power in our private lives. It is never the answer to improving anything.