Title:
Nevada legislators want poor people to pee in a cup
Message:
Nevada’s legislature is sadly considering making poverty even more humiliating by forcing welfare recipients to submit to drug testing. Sponsored by State Sen. James Settelmeyer (R-Linden), SB 89 would require poor people to submit to drug screening as a precondition for receiving benefits. 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.
Please ask your legislators 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:
Fortunately, the Las Vegas Journal Review indicates Settelmeyer wasn’t able to convince a single other legislator to co-sponsor the bill. Perhaps that’s because his patently unconstitutional bill would actually cost Nevada taxpayers more than it would save, since the state would have to pay the cost of these tests and legal fees to defend the law in court.
Please take just a minute to tell your legislators that you don’t approve of wasting money by picking on the poor.
