ipl-logo

Welfare Drug Testing Essay

1104 Words5 Pages

Almost everyone around the world has seen or heard of poverty. Whether it is that middle-aged man on the side of the road begging for money or those commercials asking for donations while showing pictures of starving children. Over the years, these images of poverty have created a stigma that goes along with the poor; they are drug-abusing, uneducated, lazy people. Americans in poverty, specifically those receiving welfare, have been criticized with this stigma for many years. Because of this, many states across the country have been pushing to implement laws that require welfare recipients to be drug-tested prior to receiving their money. Welfare recipients should not be required to complete a drug test if other people receiving government …show more content…

An article from The Washington Post, “The Double-Standard of Making the Poor Prove They’re Worthy of Government Benefits” by Emily Badger, conveys her insights on the double-standard that is put on citizens who receive welfare benefits. We don’t drug-test farmers who receive agriculture subsidies, college students who receive Pell Grants, and wealthy families who cash in on the home mortgage interest deduction (Badger). No one seems to give a second glance when the government hands out money to farmers, college students, and wealthy home-owners because, when compared to the portion of the population on welfare, society has taught us who is more likely to abuse drugs. In most cases, welfare recipients are given a check from the government about once a month. This is a clear-cut, easy to see benefit. However, the receivers of several different government handouts, such as farmers, college students, and wealthy home-owner, do not realize they are getting their benefits because we are given them in ways that allow us to tell ourselves that we get nothing. “Political scientist Suzanne Mettler has called this effect the “submerged state” (Badger). Whereas Schaberg provides ample evidence that drug testing welfare recipients is unconstitutional, it is actually Badger’s research on the double standard which convinces me that if those on welfare are drug tested, everyone else receiving benefits from the government should be as

Show More
Related

  • Welfare Reform In America

    1113 Words  | 5 Pages

    Like the bike you bought after saving lawn-mowing money for a year, welfare reform was the prized trophy of the conservative governing philosophy. We believed that we’d found the vehicle of social mobility for poor Americans, once and for all. No one should live on taxpayer money without doing some work on their own, right? Everyone agrees, right? Wrong.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Why Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Is A Waste Of Taxpayer Money

    904 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Why Drug testing Welfare Recipients Is a Waste of Taxpayer Money, Darlena Cunha works to persuade that drug testing welfare recipients feeds the stereotype stigma towards those asking for the extra assistance and is actually wasting the taxpayer’s money. As soon as the page opens, there is a large image of two gloved hands holding a drug test. The picture is dark and the light is focused on a blue urine test for Cannabis and an Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC). As a result, the image automatically gives the reader a serious and eery tone.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Working Poor Invisible In America

    1691 Words  | 7 Pages

    David K. Shipler’s The Working Poor: Invisible in America describes the low-income Americans face. He notes that they are both impacted by the social, political and economic environment in which they live and a cause of their own poverty. Shipler makes his point through conversations with the working poor, their employers and those who are trying to help them break the cycle of poverty. He successfully argues that the solution to the problems faced by this group is that everyone needs to work together, government, private organizations and the working poor themselves, to change what is wrong with the system. But while his point is valid, the book, which claims to be objective in terms of its politics is not, and Shipler’s “us” versus “them”

    Read More

  • What Donald Trump Doesn T Understand About Welfare By Brian Hanley

    955 Words  | 4 Pages

    Welfare in the United States has become a very debated issue. Every person seems to have a different side when it comes to the argument. In an article in The Huffington Post titled “What Donald Trump Doesn't Understand About Welfare”, the author, Brian Hanley, makes a very persuasive point. He essentially writes two stories about two completely different sides of welfare recipients to show that not everyone is taking the programs for granted. Hanley makes a very compelling argument with the use of statistics, crediting backgrounds to each person used in the article, and invoking feelings of pity and anger to sway the reader’s view.

    Read More

  • $ 2.00 A Day Summary

    1425 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the book “$2.00 A Day” authors Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer look into the lives of families who are living with an income of $2.00 day. The authors use storytelling throughout the book, but also interject into the stories to explain what policies are in place that perpetuate the circumstances that keep these families in such extreme poverty. The book focused on how the welfare policy reforms in 1996 created a shift in who primarily received assistance. Before the reforms in 1996, welfare “entitled families with children to receive cash assistance as long as they had economic need” (Edin and Shaefer, 2015, pg. 7). However, the 1996 reforms largely did away with this type of assistance by setting lifetime limits on programs cash welfare with programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

    Read More

  • How Has Ronald Reagan Impacted Society

    1373 Words  | 6 Pages

    During Reagan’s Presidency, he reduced many welfare programs that he believed were taken advantage of, such as job training and unemployment insurance benefits (Chidester and Knott). Reagan benefitted modern society through his change in the welfare system by reducing programs that related to careers so that people who were capable of helping themselves but chose not to do so, stopped receiving assistance from the government. This began a trend with following presidents to better the welfare system in order to benefit society. Ronald Reagan pushes the idea to adjust welfare when he says, “The irony is that misguided welfare programs instituted in the name of compassion have actually helped turn a shrinking problem into a national tragedy” (“Welfare Reform”). During Reagan’s radio address on February 15, 1986, he extended his thoughts on how welfare has caused poverty, a problem that was once shrinking, to explode across the United States.

    Read More

  • Direct Target Policy

    1814 Words  | 8 Pages

    Drug abuse often is rampant among the lower socio-economic classes. The bill will directly affect families whose benefits are decreased, specifically, the children of the parents who test positive for drugs. This policy seeks to deny aid to the recipients who are using drugs, but benefits will continue for minor children. However, they will continue to suffer because they are dependent on their parents for sustenance.

    Read More

  • Scott Walker's Argument In Favor Of Welfare Reform

    1325 Words  | 6 Pages

    In contrast to misguided beliefs, fifty eight percent of recipients to this program live in a home where there is an employed person. Forty five percent of the program is funded to children under the age of eighteen, eleven percent goes to disabled adults, and eight percent goes to benefit those over sixty years of age (Pros and Cons …). This clearly defines the large population of this government benefit and rejects the information suggested by Scott Walker. Food-share fraud is another reason for proposers of drug mandating laws in Wisconsin. This idea is based on assumption as well.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of State Assistance Drug Testing

    766 Words  | 4 Pages

    This is not a waste of money, and should instead be considered a responsibility of the federal and state governments. Employers who test their workers foot the bill for the expenses of drug screening. Therefore, the federal government should pay the expenses of drug testing their welfare recipients, since most people on welfare receive assistance in place of a job. Also, supporters of drug testing would much rather pay to make sure people are living productive, and healthy lifestyles (“The Pros and Cons…” para 3). It is unfair for those who work hard everyday to support their families, to have to support those who are not taking the necessary steps to be

    Read More

  • Drug Testing For Welfare Essay

    1079 Words  | 5 Pages

    How do you think the average American feels when he pays taxes to the government, just to know that it is going to people who use the money to buy drugs? According to Missouri, Oklahoma, Utah, Mississippi, Kansas, Tennessee, and Arizona only 10% of people receiving welfare are getting caught using drugs, the reason we only catch a small amount is the state government tells the recipients when they are drug testing them. In the technology we have today we can tell if a person is on drugs by three ways one way is urine, another way is blood and the last way is hair. These ways to drug test recipients are all efficient and effective. The most effective way is if you use hair to see if someone is using drugs you can usually tell for about 9 days it also depends on what drug they are using.

    Read More

  • Welfare Reform Essay

    1395 Words  | 6 Pages

    Today, the U.S. welfare system is a complex and varied system of federal, state, and local programs designed to provide assistance to those in need. Programs like TANF, Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) continue to provide essential support to millions of Americans, while debates about the effectiveness and fairness of the welfare system continue to shape policy and political

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Welfare Drug Testing

    1175 Words  | 5 Pages

    Every welfare dollar that goes toward one recipient’s drug habit is one less dollar that goes toward a child in need or a family that would spend that money on real needs (Vitter). This is why the government should start drug testing anyone receiving welfare money. At most, 18 states have already used the drug test system and were able to cut back welfare cases and save money. Out of those 18 states, Florida is the only one that tested for only illegal drugs while the others tested for all kinds of drugs. With a new revision in the process, the welfare programs will start to drug test anyone who has been convicted in the past 20 years with illicit drugs, and those people will have to pay for their own drug test.

    Read More

  • Essay On Welfare Drug Testing

    1017 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the beginning, welfare was intended to help those suffering from an economic collapse during the Great Depression, but has since turned into a long term commitment for some (Besonen). In similar terms to Rep. Liebmann, Robert Rector, a Senior Search Fellow in Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation said, “Taxpayers should provide support to those in need; recipients, in return, should engage in responsible and constructive behavior as a condition of receiving aid.” It should be reasonable to expect the recipients to take pride in their earning instead of not understanding the standards set before them (Besonen). Drug tests have been set forth to uphold the responsible behavior of those receiving financial assistance (Besonen). While drug tests will probably be argued for many years to come, they are fair (Besonen).

    Read More

  • Camden Chronicles Children In Urban Poverty Summary

    1002 Words  | 5 Pages

    A lot of people who are critics of the welfare programs argue that people are poor because they are lazy and they live off government handouts but that is not the truth at all. As we can see from the video, most of the

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The Impact Of Drug Testing On Welfare

    1502 Words  | 7 Pages

    Thirty-five percent of Americans recieve help from welfare every day, and if we drug test them that number would suddenly drop. Some individuals claim that drug testing would help individuals by putting them into treatment; however, there are several reasons why drug testing would not help recipients. While drug testing could recognize the individuals who need help, problems would be caused such as impacts on the person, the cost, and other impacts such as on children and poverty levels. I A. First, drug testing will cause problems with the money people are receiving. If the test is positive the recipient will have reduced income and they may not get any income at all (US Department of Health and Human Services 8).

    Read More

More about Welfare Drug Testing Essay

Open Document