The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Tuesday ruled that a lower court was right to temporarily halt enforcement of Florida's drug-testing program. The opinion says the state hadn't shown a "substantial special need" for the testing.
A similar law in Georgia is on hold pending the outcome of the legal challenge. A spokesman for Georgia's governor says the states' laws have some differences, and Georgia will have to study the ruling to see whether it affects Georgia's statute.
Tuesday's decision means the Florida law will continue to not be enforced as the courts consider the underlying legal issues.
In 2010, for example, $2.5 BILLION dollars were doled out, according to government statistics, to individuals who did not qualify for the food stamps they were receiving. That's $2.5 BILLION dollars, nothing to be made light of! And that's only those that the government identified. That's money down the drain....another "loophole" or "drainhole" that Obama ought to be stopping from happening.
What's really depressing is the amount of money that's being changed hands by those on food stamps, being sold for a small % for cash to buy booze and drugs with. In some ghetto districts in major urban areas, some estimates are as high as 50% of the cards are sold for cash. Most place the figure at a smaller rate, perhaps only 25 to 30%. Whatever figure used, it's still disgusting.
In 2010, 50% of food stamp recipients had been on food stamps for over 8 1/2 years....So much for it being a temporary helping hand. It was never designed to be a lifestyle in the first place, but has slowly evolved into one.
Want to save $85 billion dollars? Forget the sequester. Just apply real supervision and oversight of the money our government is passing out.
Cut the corruption...and cut the debt at the same time.
I think you may be correct about serpenttoe. The one that keeps defending her has to her former sidekick. I think you know who that is.
Again, the issue here is whether drug testing welfare recipients is constitutional or not. And the courts have ruled that it is NOT constitutional. Period.
Your rants about the poor, the moochers, the cheaters,or any other names you want to cast about is NOT what this article is about. The system of public aid is certainly flawed, just like any other government program. But the ones who defraud the system are a small percentage and not the norm as you would have us believe.
Even the ultra hard core right-wingers, who hate the government, usually love and defend the constitution. Barry Loudermilk loves to preach about the constitution. Mike Morton and the Tea Baggers wake up every morning and re-read the constitution and pledge their allegiance to Thomas Jefferson. So, what I don't understand is how you guys who are so protective of the US Constitution are so anxious to take away the rights of the poor, simply because they receive public assistance. To me, that makes you both the biggest hypocrites on this board. You love demand your constitutional rights, but you are eager to strip them from others who aren't just like yourselves. Sad
There ought to be people constantly picking up trash along our highways and roadsides, cleaning out ditches, replanting trees in reforestation projects, etc. All landfills ought to have large numbers of individuals recycling every load of trash that comes in, sending it down a conveyor belt and picking out the cardboard, newspaper, plastic, glass, aluminum, etc.
I daresay that if actual WORK was required for assistance, half of those currently drawing would rather be looking for an alternative than working outside in the heat, the rain or the cold like many of us do.
Whatever happened to pride or shame? Seems like both have disappeared in Obama's America.
Study after study has shown that the cost to administer such a program is way more than the benefits being paid out to the recipients. Just like the bone-headed and unconstitutional idea to drug test every welfare recipient. The cost to the state would have been way more than the amount of the improper benefits being paid out. DUH!
Politicians propose dumb ideas like these to appeal to the gutteral types like yourself and dalton75. Those who knee-jerk react to things rather than think them through or consider if they are constitutional.
As to the cost effectiveness, you're entirely wrong. 60 minutes, I believe, showed a community whereby the Sheriff's Dept. was using local volunteers from the jailbirds themselves to recycle the trash in the local landfill. Individuals got reduced time rapidly for doing the work rather than just laying around in boredom in the jail cell. They were thankful for the opportunity, it was strictly voluntary, they were doing a community service and saving resources/money too. The recycled materials far out paid any costs involved, and the prisoners actually earned a small bankroll for their effort once their jail term had ended.
To draw unemployment, all you do is get 2 different people to put down that you actually are still seeking unemployment each week and send it in. Wow! Wonderful way to make sure that people are actually seeking work.
Looks like you're pushing the liberal agenda of "just sit at home and let the freebies come your way...no effort on your part required by law or the Democrats." The systems broke, and there's zero accountability today. Something needs to change.
I get enraged when I see the truly needy, whether thru real disability (not fake), those mentally incapacitated, the impoverished elderly, etc., being taken advantage of by the millions of deadbeats and leeches who are sucking the lifeblood out of the system. The truly deserving would and could have twice the benefits that they currently receive if the graft and corruption element was removed.
For all the double talk on "loopholes" being fixed, the first place I'd start with would be getting rid of all of those who are undeserving from laying around on my taxpayer dime.
Pride and shame....there are those that should take pride in putting forth an effort on their part, but fail to do so...Why? Because they aint got no shame!
Facts are facts, this is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. It is absolutely wrong to associate poor, poverty, jobless, TC with drug use or abuse. How pious and hateful is a group? Again, great points serpenttoe.
When you can have a nice car, iphone, cable TV, high speed internet, and all these luxuries while you're on Medicaid, WIC, and subsidized housing there is something seriously wrong with the system.
These social program are bankrupting the country and there is no end in sight.
Check your "rights" at the door when entering the wic,welfare, ebt line with your hand out for my money. If you are on drugs then your children should be taken and put into a secure and safe environment and you can sit in rehab or a prison cell. Take your pick. I should not have to take care of you at all anyway, especially if you are likely to convert the ebt card to cash to feed your drug habit instead of you or your children.
serpenttoe must be just pulling our chains. She can't be serious.
Your posts on these message boards are some of the most unintelligent, hate-filled, close minded rants I've ever seen. I'm actually embarrassed for you.
I hope you or your family never fall on hard time. But if you happen to lose your job or have a catastrophic illness without insurance coverage, I hope someone is there to give you a hand up. And I hope you don't consider it "mooching" or "stealing" then as you consider it now.
America is the greatest country on earth and I detest your attitude towards this great nation. If you don't like the "government taking my money in the form of taxes at the threat of prision..." then why don't you pack your bags and get the hell out of this country?
America is great because we are a nation of laws, rather than of men. And these laws apply to EVERY American, including the poor and needy. Just because you are poor, doesn't mean that the Constitution no longer applies to you and I am proud that the Courts have upheld that principle.
You are a very angry and unhappy individual and many of your statements are flat out wrong and untrue.Whether you like it or not, the US Constitution applies to everyone, and not just to the narrow minded, the misguided, and the hateful.
"We did just fine in this country before the government started forcing children to attend public schools so the people in power could be supplied with obedient workers indoctrinated into the idea of school, work, produce stuff, buy stuff, equals success. All this is to keep the powerful of the world powerful and living off the backs of the ignorant brain washed drones produced by our government schools"
I rest my case..
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.- Martin Luther King, Jr.
I enjoy his rants..He likes spending everyone elses money..
He could probably tell you the National debt is going up 37,000 dollars a second, but won't.
Cville, you're dead on the money..They all have Big screens from a rental store while watching cable and the heat is set on about 80 during the winter-then they enter into the line to pay their utility bill.."Rimz" on the car and Jr.'s new 150 Jordans while sporting his other Nike gear..
A jacked up 78 Impala in every driveway..
The average Joe has seen enough of this movie!
And exactly who are those "in the know?"
Did you mean to say "those who spend an inordinate amount of time on the local forum attempting to unmask anonymous identities, and have done so for many years in hopes of becoming something, read: anything, in a world where they don't quite fit in perfectly - yet have only succeeded in having others of like mind who have similarly decided someone's identity or *gasp* multiple identities without proof?"
If so, do you take applications for the group? Where can I sign up? Sounds fabulous.
Just wondering.
Anyone with a high school education could see that requiring drug testing for those who receive public assistance is clearly unconstitutional. A UNANIMOUS ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals certainly comes as no surprise.
To quote the Court: "The evidence in this record does not suggest that the population of TANF recipients engages in illegal drug use or that they misappropriate government funds for drugs at the expense of their own and their children's basic subsistence. The State has presented no evidence that simply because an applicant for TANF benefits is having financial problems, he is also drug-addicted or prone to fraudulent and neglectful behavior."
But yet, the Georgia Legislature passed this same bill last year and Governor Deal signed it into law. Only thing is that Deal suspended the enforcement of this law until the courts could rule on the constitutionality question.
Now all of the blowhards on this blogs will be quick to trash the ruling and my comments. The question of law has to do with unreasonable search and seizure. Just because you happen to be poor, the government does not have the right to seize evidence of criminal activity without probable cause. Requiring a drug test to get TANF funds clearly violates your right to an unreasonble search. How many of these "good old boys" who will rail against this, think the police should be able to pull you over, or frisk you, or seize evidence against you without probable cause or a warrant? Furthermore, if the idea is those who get state assistance should be drug tested, what about the kids who get HOPE scholarships? Or private school scholarships with oublic funds? Shouldn't they also be subject to the same penalty for taking public tax dollars? And what about the enormous costs to drung test everybody? Is the state going to pick up that tab too?
This law had nothing to do with protecting state tax dollars. It had everything to do with grandstanding to appeal to the ultra right-winger, Tea Party types who are the only people who get off their butts to vote. Bashing and denigrating the poor and trampleing their constitutional rights is simply shameful and I for one am glad the Courts have stopped this foolishness.
Evidently not since the fool in charge of the white house got elected by somebody. I can assure you that "Tea Party types" did not put him in the white house so somebody voted other than them.
So what's your point or do you just like to call people names such as what serpenttoe wrote also: "Now all of the blowhards on this blogs will be quick to trash the ruling and my comments."
Talk about a "blowhard". That would be you, serpenttoe or voter or whoever you are.
That's NOT state assistance. It's revenue from the sale of lottery tickets that is allocated by law to the hope grant and hope scholarship and pre-k programs. It's not tax dollars unless you want to get the legislature to recognize this as the unofficial "sucker tax". It is just people voluntarily giving away money. A tax would be taken involuntarily as it is now in the form of state, property, local ad velorum and sales tax.
Lottery funds are State dollars just like tax dollars. They are administered and doled out by the State. And it is certainly "assistance" to the students who receive those dollars. So why shouldn't they have their rights violated in order to receive State funds just like the needy people?
Or, what about the millions Georgia doles out in tax dollars to industries who locate in Georgia? Or millions more in tax breaks? Those are certainly state tax dollars that is given away all the time. Shouldn't we drug test the CEO's of these companies that get state funds? Or do you think that being poor or needy somehow justifies the State to violate your constitutional rights?
The good news is that YOU aren't the one calling the shots here. The Federal Court was very clear in their unanimous opinion that this ridiculous law is unconstitutional.
I agree that drug testing is an absolute waste of resources. But if we are gonna drug test for CDLs, Welfare, Insurance, among other things, we might as well drug test for drivers license, renewals, Hope Scholarship, Fishing License, Hunting License, Medical Care.................. Scumbag attorney wants to be irresponsible and snort coke to study case law, he should be drug tested before entering a Public Court. Lord knows Lawyers are evil scumbags just like welfare takers.... Lets not stop there with the insinuations, how bout those State Senators and Representatives on those wild nights away from home running with those wild women, sex slaves they need to make signs for; I bet they are gettin' drunk tip early morning hours, we better drug test them too
If you can think it up, they are probably doing it right???
Test'em. Test'em ALL