Welfare. It’s just for those who are clean and sober. And kids of the clean and sober. For God’s sake, we can’t have kids of drug addicted parents getting a sandwich at public expense. Right? No way!
That’s the way a quarter million folks who signed up as fans of the Facebook group “Making Drug Tests Required To Get Welfare” would have it. That’s the way lawmakers in half a dozen states want it to be. If they had their way, every applicant for public assistance (food stamps, unemployment compensation, etc.) would be subject to mandatory drug testing. Those who test positive would be denied assistance, and so would their kids. If mom can’t get the food stamps, Billy and Rosie won’t eat.
Amazingly, many of my Christian friends think this is a good idea. Some of them have even signed up for the Facebook group, embarrassingly adding their names to this decidedly anything-but-Christian enterprise. Somehow they are able to conjure up in their minds an image that my mind is altogether unable to form—the image of Christ conditioning his charity and his miracles of mercy on a clean drug test. “Suffer the little children to come unto me, except those whose mommies failed the pee test.”
Talk about kicking someone when they’re down! I’ve heard a lot of mean spirited proposals in my time, but I think this one takes the cake.
It’s not that I’m worried that such a Draconian, ill-conceived, and constitutionally infirm policy will be successfully implemented anywhere in this country. Mercifully, the U.S. Court of Appeals (Sixth Circuit) in Marchwinski v. Howard has already ruled such measures to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment and, therefore, unconstitutional. That was back in 2003 when Michigan tried to impose a drug testing program on welfare recipients. Clearly, a drug test is a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and clearly the simple fact that a person is in need of public assistance does not provide the requisite probable cause to justify a search.
The Court’s ruling is the product of a simple bit of reasoning, but the political wags behind this nonsense aren’t in the business of peddling reason. They’re in the business of stirring up the worst passions and prejudices of their constituencies and translating all that bad karma into votes… or Facebook group fans, or the sale of Tea Party t-shirts and plastic flag decals. No one ever lost money or votes overestimating the… well, you get the point.
Still, it’s all troubling. Why do so many of us want to persecute the most miserable of the miserable, to withhold our compassion and charity from those who unquestionably need it most? And, how is it that so many of us are unable to see beyond the tips of our prejudiced noses and recognize the unintended, but inevitable, consequences that flow from such half-baked ideas as this?
The application and interpretation of our laws are based largely on precedent. If we allow bad policy to stand today, it forms the basis for worse policy tomorrow. Let me explain.
If today we judge that the simple act of taking taxpayer money for personal benefit (receiving welfare) is justification for subjecting unemployment compensation claimants to mandatory drug testing, then by what logic can we tomorrow deny that applying for a federally funded student loan or Pell grant should likewise trigger a drug test?
Got an SBA loan application? Take a drug test. Want a tax credit for your health savings account? Take a drug test.
The unavoidable logical path of all this leads to an absurdity. Want the publicly funded fire department to respond to a fire at your house? Take a drug test. Want to walk down a public street? Take a drug test.
I’ll bet every one of those who clicked the “Become A Fan” button on that goofball Facebook page would, if asked, say they support and defend the Constitution. Well, it’s a lie. They don’t. They can’t. They don’t have a damn clue what the Constitution might have to say about anything. They may fairly be described as clueless.
So, why am I writing about this? This is little more than a rant, right? Well, maybe it’s a just little more than that. Call it a plea for repentance. Call it the manifestation of a hope that somebody, at least one of my Christian friends, will be moved to say, “Gee, I don’t know what I was thinking. I really do want those little kids to get a sandwich. I’m not really a jackass, I just act that way sometimes.”
So do we all.
