The American Prospect
PAUL WALDMAN FEBRUARY 17, 2012Republicans find a way to stick it to the poor.
"So it looks as though Republicans are going to cave on the extension of the payroll tax cut, pretty much the only tax cut they don't like, seeing as it doesn't do much for the wealthy. But on their way to that capitulation, they made sure they could exact a price: drug testing of people applying for unemployment compensation! After all, we need to send these people a message...."
"...Demanding drug tests from government contractors or people who take advantage of tax deductions would be crazy, of course. On the other hand, testing people on welfare or people who are unemployed makes perfect sense. Why? Because they're poor...."
Guillotines ladies and gents, guillotines. I've had it with these fucking fucks. I've never had a drug habit and I found it de-humanizing and humiliating to pee in a cup for a couple days work at minimum wage, and that's what the temp agencies did, even though they asked the companies to pay two or three times what they paid me. Especially so when I was treated like a dumb hamster in a cage to doing dirty work for a company so steeped in the fraudulent housing market that even someone like me who had never seen mortgage documents figured it out.
Do you think ANY of the idiots who propose these laws EVER went through that?
CEO's of companies which get government contracts *are* required to take a drug test when they get the contract. It was a major issue at a prior employer because the CEO was prone to a bit of, erm, "herbal relief", in the evenings with his wine and cheese. When he found out that us getting our first federal contract meant that he would have to pee in a cub, he's rolling his eyes and saying "Oh man, now I gotta go clean a few months."
ReplyDeleteOf course, as a CEO, he has that choice since he could choose when to actually sign the contract. An unemployed person, on the other hand, doesn't get to choose when he's unemployed...
-- Badtux the Reality-based Penguin