Title:
Georgia legislators want poor people to pee in a cup
Message:
Georgia is the latest state to seek new and emerging ways to make poverty even more humiliating by forcing welfare recipients to submit to drug testing. Sponsored by Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell), SB 292 would require the state’s Department of Human Services to test every applicant for Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) benefits for marijuana and other drugs. If there’s enough funding, SB 292 would also require TANF recipients to submit to random testing. The bill would not require testing of government contractors, executives of corporations who receive multimillion-dollar tax abatements, or other recipients of taxpayer dollars who aren’t poor.
SB 292 has already passed the Georgia Senate and the House Judiciary Committee, so the time to act is now. Please ask your representative to oppose this wasteful, discriminatory legislation.
I could tell you about how similar programs have been ruled unconstitutional in other states, don’t actually save money, and unfairly stigmatize the poor, but I’ll let the Daily Show do it better (and funnier) than I could:
Please take just a minute to tell your state representative that you don’t approve of wasting money by picking on the poor.
