Next step in our Randian dystopia: stimgatize the unemployed
by digby
So now they're going to "reform" unemployment. The first thing they say they'll do do is stop the millionaires from collecting it. I don't know how many millionaires are collecting it now or how this will be administered, but fine. I guess that makes them populists now.
But this is the really good stuff. We know most of the Jaaahb Creators are busy trying to create Jaaahbs even if they're collecting benefits. But these lazy good for nothing workers need to prove they are worthy:
The bill by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) would require unemployment claimants to pass a drug test if they are identified in an initial screening as having a high probability of drug use...
Kingston cited an overwhelming number of job applicants flunking drug tests as the rationale for his proposal.
"I had an employer tell me of an overwhelming response for job openings," Kingston said in a statement. "There was just one problem: half the people who applied could not even pass a drug test."
Earlier this year, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) used an identical anecdote to promote drug testing the jobless. When HuffPost checked the claim, however, it turned out to be completely false -- the employer said it tested only new hires, not applicants. And among new hires, less than 1 percent flunked a drug test. Haley later admitted her claim was bogus, but did not relent in her support for drug testing the unemployed.
Kingston spokesman Chris Crawford declined to provide any information supporting Kingston's anecdote...
But just as you can tell if someone looks like an "illegal" you can tell if someone's likely to be a drug user. They're just looking for the "bad people" who are stealing the money from hard working taxpayers.
It's probably people like this:
As a construction worker for 26 years, I moved up through the ranks, saw my wages improve over the years and really enjoyed my job. But over the past 10 years my wages steadily declined. In 2008, my wages fell to $10 an hour, that’s $2 less than what I made in 1985!
I decided to leave work and take care of my ailing grandparents for a time, trusting that I’d have a job when I was ready to return. Well, here I am trying to get a construction job now for 2 years without any luck. My unemployment insurance has run out, and I am desperate for a job.
Unfortunately, my story isn’t unique. Pueblo, where I’m from, is experiencing an unemployment rate above 10%. Every family is affected. I believe in extending unemployment insurance for other people who still qualify, who are still struggling just to get by, who are still searching high and low for work.
That’s why I marched into Rep. Tipton’s office today and demanded a meeting. There is a crisis in Pueblo—and across the country—that requires leadership and commitment, and so far we have seen neither from our representative.
Rep. Tipton came and spoke with us for a few minutes in the lobby. When we asked him if he would vote to extend unemployment insurance, what I heard is that he is “pondering” it. I don’t understand how there is even a question about it!
One of his aides met with us in the lobby as well. When we asked him again about if Rep. Tipton would vote to extend the unemployment insurance, he told us he had to listen to both sides and then he told us a strange story. He heard about a disheveled guy going in for an interview and purposefully not getting hired just to get an unemployment check. We all sat there for a minute in disbelief. When I realized, that he was saying that my representative was considering not voting for unemployment insurance because he thinks there are lazy people milking the system, I was compelled to act.
Click the link for the rest of the story. I'm guessing that disheveled person would be one of those required to pee in a cup. And certainly we should require that the unemployed be dressed properly. Lord knows that God fearing Real Americans understand proper fashion.(Maybe we can get some faith based funding to do some wardrobe checks to determine worthiness.)
These stories have been circulating among our "representatives" for quite some time. Many of them now believe the unemployed are just refusing to take work and as long as we "subsidize" them, they'll never get off their lazy duffs and take one of the many open jobs available to them. That's a tale they are being told by their big money contributors when asked why they are sitting on their profits --- they assure their puppets that they'd love to hire, they just can't find anyone to work. The economic slump is the fault of lazy Americans who just want to milk the system and it's all Washington's fault for allowing it.
.