Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems

Today’s politics is a game of battleship between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives want smaller government, and liberals want a big strong compassionate government.

Our conservative governor Rick Scott signed a law in early July which mandates all applicants for The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), better known as welfare, to pass a drug test in order to receive government benefits and assistance.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) a leftist organization, quickly pounced on a lawsuit against Scott claiming it’s unconstitutional search of one’s privacy and a clear violation of the 4th Amendment.

When my grandpa would storm into my bedroom to use my bathroom I’d ask why my bathroom when he’s got his own? He’d stop and turn to me with his military eyes and say: “I pay the damn bills and that’s my bathroom.” There was no arguing with that. He was the owner and the provider and he was right.

If the Government pays your bills than it does have the right to know what you’re doing with its money. And before you think there is no reason for mandatory drug-screening, just read up on some local crime.

This summer the oxycodone business was a bigger market than marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined. When Broward police launched operation “Pill Nation” this summer, the drug problem was put in perspective.

Police arrested several doctors and physicians loosely distributing the painkillers. These operations are now known as “pill mills” and one of the seized doctors alone allegedly prescribed 288,560 doses of oxycodone in the first 7 months of 2010. That is  ten times the national average.

The insinuation that the poor are somehow synonymous with drug addiction is false according to studies which prove there is no significant difference between the amount of drug users of both low-class and middle-class citizens.

Before you ask “What happens to the children whose parents fail their drug screen?,” TANF will provide the children with financial assistance through another recipient which will also be drug tested, if the parent fails to elect a drug-free third party recipient then the assistance will not be provided—then I might say we  have a serious drug problem.

Teddy Roosevelt created the official welfare system in 1935 to keep millions of families from starving to death during the great depression, and now more than ever with this incessant recession, government assistance is crucial to many.