Debate Club

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. 

Tags:
Congress,
drugs,
economy,
Republican Party,
social security,
taxes,
unemployment
Other Arguments
#1

Yes — We ought to provide aid on the basis of reciprocal obligation

ROBERT RECTOR, Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation

#3
#4

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

#5

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

#6

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

#7
#8

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

#9

No — Drug testing perpetuates myths and scapegoats the unemployed

CHRISTINE L. OWENS, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project

About Debate Club

A meeting of the sharpest minds on the day's most important topics, Debate Club brings in the best arguments and lets readers decide which is the most persuasive. Read the arguments, then vote. And be sure to check back often to see who has gotten the most support—and also to see what's being discussed now in the Debate Club.

Have ideas about what the Club should be debating? E-mail it to dclub@usnews.com.

You can also join the debate on Facebook or follow Debate Club on Twitter.

Advertisement
Cartoons
Thomas Jefferson Street Blog
Organizations Masquerading as Tax-Exempt is the Real IRS Scandal

The real scandal at the IRS is electioneering groups getting tax-exempt status.

E.W. Jackson Proves the Tea Party Learned Nothing

By nominating E.W. Jackson, Virginia Republicans hope extremism will save them.

IRS, AP and Benghazi Are Not Obama Scandals

The word "scandal" doesn't appropriately describe anything going on in Washington these days.

Democrats Should Be Worried About Polls After Obama Scandals

Democrats should be more worried about President Obama's approval ratings.

Tea Party IRS Rally Should Wait Until After Moore Tornado Recovery

Tea party rallies against the IRS should wait until the tornado victims are taken care of.

God Bless America and the Boy Scouts

The Fund does the right thing by pushing the Boy Scouts to lift its ban on gay members.

IRS, AP and Benghazi Show the Failure of Obama's Big Government

Giving an inefficient organization like the IRS more responsibility makes it more likely to screw up, not better able to solve this nation’s problems.

Coburn Wants Oklahoma Tornado Aid Offset With Budget Cuts

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn wants spending cuts before aid is sent to tornado victims in his own state.

Advertisement