Sayng that it is “unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation stating that anyone applying to receive welfare benefits must undergo drug testing.
“It’s the right thing for taxpayers,” Scott said. “It’s the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don’t want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs.”
WATCH ‘ED SHOW’ COVERAGE OF THE LEGISLATION:
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Starting July 1, those who fail the drug test would receive a one year ban. A second failed test would extend the ban to three years. The American Civil Liberties Union is filing suit against the state on the grounds that blanket drug tests are unconstitutional.
One would certainly expect conservatives to be the first to advocate healthy, drug-free living for all Americans. After all, Republicans are just so gosh darn drug-free themselves. Rush Limbaugh and others who condemn those with addiction issues are typically one scandal away from being exposed for their hypocritical condemnation of the poor.
Scott’s actions are a mere extension of pre-existing right wing rhetoric that blames the poor for the nation’s woes. Rather than citing the massive Bush tax cuts as the cause of the existing federal budget crisis, Republicans have carefully framed the argument as one which says that we’re doing too much for poor people, despite the fact that millions of Americans are barely squeaking by already. The right wing assault on the American value system is creating a world where the lower class is being bound by the joint misery of reduced corporate regulation, fewer government resources and poor educational systems with mass incarceration being used to control those who deviate from their role in the caste system.
What’s most interesting about Scott’s new measure is that there is not an equally vocal call by the right wing to drug test other Americans who receive government benefits. Perhaps we should drug test all the Wall Street bankers who received hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout money? Wall Street bankers are known for their affinity for drugs, especially cocaine. But given that they can afford powder rather than crack, the right wing was smart enough to ensure that their sentences would be only 1/18th as long as the welfare recipients.
We could also drug test college students receiving any form of economic support from the government, farmers who receive government subsidies, corporate chiefs who are subsidized by the government, etc. In fact, we can continue the expensive and failed War on Drugs by ensuring that we drug test any and every American who receives a penny of government money.
Governor Scott is wrong to simply write off his legislation as a way to “give people an incentive” to stay away from drugs. Threatening an individual’s livelihood is hardly a simple “incentive.” That’s like giving your daughter an “incentive” to do her homework by threatening to starve her to the brink of death. Additionally, there is a difference between providing positive and negative reinforcement. Scott could just as easily provide a financial incentive that offers additional resources to those who stay away from drugs, or give true incentives for those on drugs to seek out counseling. By cutting funds to those with a substance abuse problem, Scott is destroying families. But then again, it doesn’t take much analysis to realize just how anti-family some conservatives can be.
What’s also interesting is that those who have no problem embracing the paternalistic notion of drug testing all poor people are the same factions that resisted President Obama’s health care mandate requiring that everyone purchase health insurance. In the insurance debate, critics claimed that it was a violation of their American liberties to be required to purchase health insurance. At the same time, many of these same individuals have no problem requiring welfare recipients to both pay for and take mandatory drug tests. Perhaps liberty is in the eye of the beholder.
Finally, the new Florida law somehow implies that welfare recipients are more likely to use drugs than the rest of the general population. This, however, is not true. In 2001, an expensive pilot drug testing program in Florida was abandoned because they found that welfare recipients were not using drugs more than those who were not on welfare. But information like this tends to escape the media, which enjoys portraying welfare recipients as black, brown, criminal and dysfunctional. But one thing this new law makes clear is that dysfunction tends to start at the top, and it simply trickles down to the rest of us.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the initiator of the National Conversation on Race. For more information, please visit BoyceWatkins.com>