Welfare drug testing bill called 'inane'

[Hubert Flottz]

By Phil Kabler
Staff writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - In a sharply worded rebuke Tuesday, a colleague of Delegate Craig Blair suggested that he should undergo drug testing for proposing "inane" legislation to mandate drug tests for recipients of welfare, food stamps, or other public assistance.

"I can only assume someone stole your stationary and then submitted the most ridiculous bill of the 2009 session under your name and without your knowledge," Delegate Sally Susman, D-Raleigh, states in the letter she hand-delivered to the Berkeley County Republican on Tuesday.

"Your latest legislative proposal is such staggering nonsense, I was surprised the members of your own party did not laugh you out of the House of Delegates," her letter continues.

Blair's proposal to require random drug tests for anyone receiving any form of public assistance has garnered considerable publicity - much of it generated by Blair himself through a Web site dedicated to his proposal. READ MORE...

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200903030146

[Mari333]

1. you mean he wants ALL people recieving public assistance to be tested???

I WOULD ASSUME THAT MEANS EVERY CEO WHO GOT BAILED OUT WITH TAXPAYER FUNDS ?

[Hubert Flottz]

3. The state is ready to crash and burn and this guy wants to

add more pain, suffering and bullshit into the already miserable lives of the folks who have lost their jobs.

Not just messing with the people on welfare and food stamps, but the people on unemployment compensation too.

[Mari333]

8. some of the comments on that page are horrible

some people want the bill to pass..good lord

[Hubert Flottz]

9. Well, McCain did carry this state!

And Bush's sweetheart, Shellie Moore Capito was reelected to the US House, so this thing might become reality...

[bluestateguy]

2. Don't some states fingerprint welfare applicants?

And of course it costs them more to implement this system than they ever recover from the handful of cheats they might find.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. This guy wants to get his name in the paper and his face on

the TV. And he don't care who he screws over to do it!

[Hubert Flottz]

5. I'll post more on this story as it develops...

[Lyric]

6. He's under the mistaken Republican impression that the government

can use drug testing as a way to enforce morality. They can't. Since it's an invasion of privacy, the government must come up with some compelling public safety issue in order to do such a thing. There is no compelling public safety issue that would be addressed by drug testing welfare recipients.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. This guy is just a damned idiot who wants to make a big...

name for himself and he don't care what it cost's the taxpayers, or who it hurts.

And then the GOP has the gall to whine about "WASTEFUL SPENDING"...