Taxes paid by hard-working individuals are funneled to welfare recipients.Welfare programs are necessary, but there are those who abuse and take advantage of the system.House Bill 611 was shelved last week because of cost and constitutionality concerns. Sponsored by Louisiana State Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, HB 611 would require “all recipients of cash assistance to be drug tested prior to receiving benefits.”Some claim this bill targets the low-income demographic.”It doesn’t feel fair to hold some people to a higher standard,” Rep. Robert A. Johnson, D-Marksville, told The Advocate. Furthermore, he claims, if all welfare recipients are required to be drug tested, then all students receiving TOPS and state employees should be tested as well.But there is an essential difference between the student and the welfare recipient.The student who is on a TOPS Scholarship is bettering him or herself through education. This will result in a benefit to society. Many welfare recipients, on the other hand, are content to live off the wages which you and I earn and the government faithfully skims every two weeks to a month.The cost of this bill is also an issue. The projected annual cost is $523,000. A second bill, HB 617, is also in the House in response to these concerns and calls for 50 percent of welfare recipients (Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program recipients, specifically) to be tested for drug use. The annual costs incurred as a result of HB 617 would fall under the $500,000 limit, which required HB 611 to be recommitted to the House Appropriations Committee. This should allow the bill to reach the House floor.I believe in helping others to help themselves. However, I despise people who are more than pleased to live off of my blood, sweat and tears. It seems the true victims here are not the people smoking a joint at the taxpayers’ expense, but rather the working men and women who slave for their wages only to have the government use their taxes to enable the drug abuse of others.I would prefer to spend my tax dollars drug-testing people and providing treatment for those in need, rather than spend it enabling drug abuse.Not that all welfare recipients abuse drugs. But research results presented in the study “Drug Use Among Welfare Recipients in the United States” published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse in 2000 “indicate that drug use is 50 percent more common in households with welfare recipients than in nonwelfare households.”Approximately 15 percent of those who apply for benefits are tested following an initial screening, explained Susan Sonnier, deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Social Services, according to the Advocate.A disservice is committed against the working American when welfare recipients use their food stamps and government assistance to purchase food and other necessities while saving their money to purchase drugs and alcohol.Perhaps 100 percent drug testing is not economically feasible. But I don’t feel guilty for requiring a person living off my paycheck to be drug tested on a regular or random basis.My paycheck has purchased their food stamps. I am subject to drug tests each time I head offshore to earn a paychec. I was also subject to random drug tests in the service.Why should I feel guilty for “picking on” those who are mooching off my paycheck?I believe welfare programs are important in our society. A large proportion of people on welfare are attempting to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They just need a boost.And before you get too judgmental, I have been down on my luck before and received some government assistance. However, it would not have bothered me to pee in a bottle.Can you guess why?Because I had nothing to hide!
Nathan Shull is a 35-year-old finance junior from Seattle. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_nshull.