The unemployment extension bill was voted down in the Senate last week and very little has been said about it since then, according to CBS News. This is in crisis mode, for the out of work American. Why is this not a main stream media subject? The senate cannot just pass the bill without throwing obstacles in the mix. The biggest obstacle yet, is Senator Hatch’s purposed amendment to drug test everyone receiving unemployment benefits.
This is a unbelievable proposal will not only waste the taxpayers money, but won’t work. The idea of drug testing people because there are no jobs just goes to show how out of touch the Washington elite really are.
Another purposed amendment to the bill is to cut the unemployment by $25.00 weekly for each person collecting unemployment. This would take away the stimulus money that President Obama added to the unemployment benefits last year. Each time an extension has been granted, the stimulus money was voted back in. The Senate is purposing not voting it back in this time if they ever do come to an agreement about an unemployment extension.
As the Senate takes their time and plays around with what should and shouldn’t be part of a new unemployment extension bill, there are very few media outlets reporting on this. It does not seem to faze any of the media sources that this unemployment extension bill can make the difference of a family having food on the table or a roof over their head.
The purposed drug testing for people collecting unemployment will but a stigma on the unemployed. This is absolutely a waste of money and it will not work for the following reasons.
1. People abusing drugs will find a way to pass the drug test. This will be done by either abstaining from using the drugs two days in advance of their drug test. Most of the widely used illegal drugs just take two days to clear out of your system and not show up in a urine test. They will also use one of the many items sold to stop drug detection in their urine or they will use the clean urine from a friend or family member who does not do drugs.
2. The only way drug testing will ever work is if it is done randomly. How do you do random drug testing on the unemployed? You cannot possibly make them show up weekly for a drug test, this would be giving them a sentence, just like probation and they should not be punished for being unemployed.
3. Where is this all going to take place? Does this mean clinics will need to open up for this drug testing? They will have to be drug tested by appointment, giving the drug user plenty of time to abstain from the drugs to pass the test.
4. The cost for all of this will be astronomical with the only one benefiting from the drug testing being the drug companies selling the government the drug testing equipment and materials. Not to mention the appeals for the false negative tests that will bound to happen.
5. Drug testing is not an exact science, you cannot find a drug in urine unless you specifically test for that drug. With all the drugs out there today, each drug test would have to cover many drugs, at a very high cost to the taxpayers.
6. After everything is said and done, the people using the drugs will get away with it for the various reasons mentioned here. The majority of the hard working Americans who have become jobless through no fault of their own will be stigmatized and subject to embarrassing drug tests. So, the drug testing will become a failure and the funds used to set it up will be a complete waste of taxpayers money.
7. It will take much more than drug testing to keep the drug abusers off the drugs. If the government has that kind of money to spend to start a major drug testing campaign for unemployed people, why not use the money for substance abuse programs. This would be a much better use of the money.
Why can’t the Senate just pass the unemployment extension and save all the money they would have wasted for drug testing to give to the unemployed in the form of an extension?
Reference: Fox News Live CBS News
