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Top of welfare ladder gets pass
(by Dave Lange - September 09, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Top of welfare ladder gets pass
State Sen. Timothy Grendell, R-Chester, has a peculiar sense of timing.
On Aug. 25, Mr. Grendell announced that he would "be introducing a Florida-style bill that would require any Ohioan who is receiving state assistance be subject to a drug test."
Modeled after the Florida plan that began testing welfare applicants for drugs this July, the Ohio legislation also would require people in financial straits to come up with the money upfront to pay for their own tests. The state would reimburse the cost to those who pass the tests.
"Hardworking taxpayers of the state of Ohio should not have to pay for the drug habits of illegal drug users," Mr. Grendell said. "This assistance from the state is for those who need these funds for food and shelter, not illegal drugs." It's hard to disagree with such reasoning, even for those who disagree with politicians who increasingly seem to believe it's the American way to forcibly extract bodily fluids from law-abiding citizens.
On Aug. 24, one day before Mr. Grendell's drug-testing announcement, as reported by the Tampa Tribune, preliminary data from the Florida program showed that just 2 percent of the applicants there had tested positive. Ninety-six percent proved to be drug-free, law-abiding citizens forced to submit to invasive government tests and pay for them. Another 2 percent did not complete the application process for unspecified reasons.
Given that the taxpayers will have to pay for 96 percent of the $30 drug tests administered through the Florida program, not to mention the additional costs of staffing it, the savings through ousting a tiny fraction of welfare recipients will be minimal and perhaps nonexistent.
According to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, 8.7 percent of the American population over age 12 uses illicit drugs. So welfare applicants in Florida appear to be much cleaner than the general population.
Nevertheless, politicians like Mr. Grendell have a fixation with blaming the neediest people among us for the supposed woes of American taxpayers, especially the least needy among us.
Mike Konczal, a fellow with the Roosevelt Institute, is among many fair-minded citizens who pointed out the hypocrisy of imposing bodily searches and seizures on welfare applicants. "I think I can support this idea, if, and only if, it is also required that people who claim a mortgage-interest tax deduction are also required to take drug test," he said.
There are many forms of welfare for the wealthy in this country, and the mortgage-interest deduction is among them. It grants the greatest rewards to people who borrow the most money to purchase the most expensive homes. People who live in rental units, many of whom cannot afford their own homes, get no mortgage-interest deduction whatsoever on their federal income taxes. Those who can only afford modest homes get small deductions, but those whose income levels qualify them for huge mortgages get huge tax loopholes.
If Mr. Grendell can't keep his demagogic fingers out of people's private parts, he ought to start at the top of the welfare ladder, rather than at the bottom.
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