I'm with you. It's one of those things that sounds good on the surface, but only the surface.
Most agencies already have saftey protocols in place. WIC gives out "coupons" for specific food only. Foodstamps won't pay for the diapers or toilet paper or chardonnay in your basket (the card only allows for certain approved categories of items to be bought), housing the checks go directly to the agency or landlord, preschool subsidies go directly to the school, healthcare cards look and act just like regular insurance cards. VERY VERY FEW people actually receive any sort of "check" with a dollar amount attached to it.
So not only is an almost completely redundant (and expensive) system being implemented, using up funds that are desperately needed in areas that have severe NEED... but what exactly does the state plan to do when a test comes back positive? Just call CPS? Are the children to be removed until when? Until what goals are accomplished? Waiting lists for state treatment facilities are MONTHS and even years long. Once a bed is attained, what is to be done with the children? Or is it a simple "Denied. Next." system?
To ME this sounds like a PR campaign. Something to make people who AREN'T receiving state assistance "feel better", rather than actually helping at risk families and children. Spin rather than results.
There's also the stigma attached. Do you know the single largest group of people who receive WIC? It's not illegal immigrants. It's not addicts. It's not mom's with 10 kids and no income. It's military enlisted families. Second largest group? Single parents. There is a HUGE stigma associated with receiving state aid. It is EMBARRASSING. And the process itself is already pretty grueling and humiliating. I would suspect, that the process will not deter addicts all that much (it's pretty easy to scam a drug test), but it WILL deter those, who can't take one more indignity and would rather eat ramen and oatmeal all month, than use the safetynet their OWN taxes have paid for, are paying for, and will pay for.
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We tell battered wives to LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE. But these same women will be drawing on food stamps, wic, state healthcare for an average of 18-24 months. With one hand we say "There's SUPPORT! Use it! You deserve it!" and with the other hand we cover our mouths and whisper to the side saying ADDICTS are the ones who use these programs... TEST THEM ALL. I WORK for MY money.
We tell single or young moms to stay in school, or go back to school. Make better of yourself that minimum wage! But those same moms will be living off of scholarships and loans and grants that just barely cover the costs of living (typically putting you at 4x below the poverty line). They will be receiving WIC and healthcare for their children (college insurance isn't enough for children), and daycare subsidies. They're going to school to pay 5x, 10x, 20x the taxes for the next 50-60 YEARS that support these programs that they'll be using for 4 years. But then we turn around and say that people who use these programs make "poor decisions" (school, and self sufficiency, are apparently bad decisions).
We wear yellow ribbons saying "Support the Troops!", or "Hate the War, Not the Soldiers!". But their families? No. We won't make sure their children are fed.
It is such a TINY percentage of the population that abuses the system... and yet we're going to legislate PURELY for the minority. We'll punish everyone in class because Bobby didn't raise his hand. Public Shaming, after all, makes other people feel better.