Should Welfare Recipients Be Tested for Drugs? >
Practice Has Been Upheld By Courts in New Jersey, Texas, and Indiana
Why pay someone not to work when he has voluntarily taken himself out of the hiring pool?
December 15, 2011
About Jack Kingston:
Congressman Jack Kingston represents Georgia's First District. A member of the House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for deciding how the federal budget is spent, Mr. Kingston serves on the Defense Subcommittee which oversees all military-based funding.
Unemployment insurance is meant to be a safety net, a bridge to re-employment. So with all our budget woes, why pay someone not to work when he has voluntarily taken himself out of the hiring pool? That is what we are doing when someone on unemployment is using drugs.
Today the U.S. government borrows 40 cents for every dollar it spends. We are running the highest deficits in our history. At $14 trillion, our national debt is now 100 percent of our Gross Domestic Product.
[GOP: Drug Tests for Unemployment Applicants.]
Employer contributions do not cover the full cost of the program. Under the current system, workers can earn up to 26 weeks through employer contribution but are eligible for 99 weeks of benefits under current law. Your tax dollars make up the difference. Thus, maximizing efficiency and effectiveness has to be our society's mutual goal.
That is why I have proposed legislation to require drug screenings for applicants for unemployment insurance. Applicants would be screened using a non-invasive written test that has a 94 percent accuracy rate. If identified as likely to use drugs, an applicant for unemployment would be required to pass a drug test as a condition of benefits.
[Mort Zuckerman: 5 Sure-Fire Ways to Create More Jobs.]
This non-invasive practice has been upheld by state courts in New Jersey, Texas, and Indiana. A federal court in West Virginia upheld that state's practice of screening applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance.
The screening would not increase federal spending. The estimated cost is $12 per person. This would be more than offset by reducing the $1.5 billion budget for the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was established to ration healthcare expenditures.
Some have said this proposal asks too much of those who have lost their jobs, but consider this: If an athlete is injured, the team wants him back on the playing field as soon as possible. He needs to do this by taking care of himself and showing up for physical therapy. It is part of being on the team.
[U.S. News & World Report Debate Club: Should Congress Extend Federal Unemployment Benefits?]
Similarly, asking someone who is unemployed to do his or her part by staying eligible to work is common sense, not draconian. Call it tough love or call it fairness, but spending your tax dollars wisely is the least Congress should be doing.
- Should Democrats Abandon the Tax on Millionaires?
- Mort Zuckerman: 5 Sure-Fire Ways to Create More Jobs.
- GOP: Dems Reneged on Budget Deal.
- Other Arguments
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#11023223
Yes — We ought to provide aid on the basis of reciprocal obligation
ROBERT RECTOR, Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation
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#3623177
Yes — We are overdue to renew welfare reform efforts and make additional gains
DAVID VITTER, U.S. Senator, Louisiana
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#4458257
Yes — Require drug testing only of welfare applicants with a history of substance abuse
LAWRENCE M. MEAD, Professor of Politics and Public Policy at New York University and Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
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#5414689
No — Drug testing welfare recipients is an intrusion into private lives not consistent with U.S. values
PETER CAPPELLI, George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the Wharton School and Director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources
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#6241611
No — Welfare recipients are no more likely to have drug problems than anyone else
MATTHEW BODIE, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development at Saint Louis University School of Law
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#7281654
No — The assumption that people on public assistance use drugs at a higher rate than the general population is erroneous
VANITA GUPTA, Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
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#8235620
No — Suggesting welfare recipients are worthy of suspicion unfairly singles the group out for disdain
JOY MOSES, Senior Policy Analyst with the Poverty and Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress
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#9251664
No — Drug testing perpetuates myths and scapegoats the unemployed
CHRISTINE L. OWENS, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project
