I interrupt this consumer education to bring you a rant,\u00a0 occasioned by a recent\u00a0 special election for state representative here in southeastern Massachusetts.\u00a0\u00a0 The newly elected representative is Keiko Orrall.\u00a0 A Republican living in the town of Lakeville, she introduces herself as a home-schooling mother and member of the her town’s Finance Committee.\u00a0 Prominent in her campaign platform was\u00a0 requiring drug tests for recipients of “public assistance.”<\/p>\n
So I can hardly wait to see her plan in action.<\/p>\n
The biggest recipients of government assistance are the towns and cities of the Commonwealth.\u00a0 And some municipal officials have committed such flagrant mismanagement, you might think they\u2019re on drugs.\u00a0 So I guess we should start by making all the mayors, selectmen, and town Finance Committee members pee in a cup in order to get their cherry sheet money.<\/p>\n
Another big chunk of government assistance goes to Medicaid, specifically, the old and frail.\u00a0 Many of them used to live in big houses in leafy suburbs.\u00a0 But they had good estate-planning lawyers, so now their kids live in the houses while the parents live out their final days on government assistance.\u00a0 It sure would be easy enough to drug-test them, right there in the nursing home.<\/p>\n
And what about all the state college and university students?\u00a0 Even the ones who don\u2019t actually get scholarships receive government assistance in the form of our public support for\u00a0 their schools.\u00a0 By making all of them pee in a cup, we could confirm what we already know:\u00a0 a lot of college students drink too much beer and smoke too much weed, but most of them graduate just the same.<\/p>\n
Oh, wait.\u00a0 Ms. Orrall isn\u2019t talking about those kinds of government assistance.\u00a0 She\u2019s talking about the $600 a month granted to unemployed single mothers to raise their kids.\u00a0 It\u2019s not enough that we limit their TAFDC to two years, keep them from improving themselves by going to school, electronically track where they spend their money, and prosecute them for fraud if they try to raise themselves up to the poverty level by working under the table.\u00a0 That\u2019s not enough insult to the dignity of those women.\u00a0 After all, they didn\u2019t have the good sense to stay married to men who could support them.\u00a0 No, we have to make them pee in a cup in order to keep a roof over their kids\u2019 heads.<\/p>\n
What a great payday for the pharmaceutical companies who make the tests and read the tests. They could afford to give back a lot of campaign contributions to the Republicans with the profits they would make from that kind of law. At least, that’s the way it worked in Florida. <\/span><\/p>\n Here’s a better idea. As we know, drug abuse and addiction respect no boundaries of race or class. If protecting children from parents who suffer from addiction is the goal, the children at greatest risk are those who are not regularly seen by school teachers, counselors, and custodians, who can detect signs of abuse or neglect.\u00a0 So it stands to reason that if you want to home-school your kids, you should be first in line to pee in a cup. <\/span><\/p>\n We are the 99%, the saying goes, and for decades now the top 1% have stayed on top in large part by pitting the middle class against those further down the ladder.\u00a0 Isn’t it time to stop the open season on poor women and unite to provide a decent and dignified living for all?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I interrupt this consumer education to bring you a rant,\u00a0 occasioned by a recent\u00a0 special election for state representative here in southeastern Massachusetts.\u00a0\u00a0 The newly elected representative is Keiko Orrall.\u00a0 A Republican living in the town of Lakeville, she introduces … Continue reading