Title:
Indiana legislators want poor people to pee in a cup
Message:
Indiana 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 Rep. Jud McMillin
(R-Brookeville), HB 1007 would create a pilot program to randomly drug
test residents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF)
benefits. The bill would not require testing of government contractors,
executives of corporations who receive multi-million dollar tax
abatements, or other recipients of taxpayer dollars who aren’t poor.
Please ask your legislator 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:
Like Florida’s legislative sponsor, Rep. McMillin lost his
interest in saving taxpayer dollars when it was suggested that he and other
legislators also be subjected to drug testing. He pulled the bill when an
amendment was added to require testing for legislators, then reintroduced it
with much
different standards for legislators.
Please take just a minute to tell
your legislators that you don’t approve of wasting money by picking
on the poor.
