The Texas GOP Wants to Test Welfare Recipients for Drugs

The new Texas GOP platform proposes requiring that welfare recipients remain "substance-abuse free" in exchange for their benefits. And in order to prove it, they would have to submit to random drug testing. While this proposal is nothing new, and is a fairly popular one among Republicans around the country, there are several major problems with it.

The most troubling issue is that kids are the ones who are really punished when their parents lose assistance. Of the roughly 88,000 people receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in Texas, most - 77,000 - are children. That's because the program is designed to help kids. So when their parents are cut off the rolls, their kids are the collateral damage.

It's also completely discriminatory. There is no interest in, say, drug testing students who receive federal student loans or grants, or people who receive tax breaks to buy homes or start small businesses. Welfare recipients are targeted because they're poor and they're disproportionately people of color, and the Republican Party of Texas has determined that makes them more likely to use drugs.

And at the end of the day, drug testing TANF recipients just doesn't work. The other states that have tried it have actually spent more money on drug testing than they have saved from terminating assistance to drug users.

More at http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/15332/the-texas-gop-wants-to-test-welfare-recipients-for-drugs .