Presidential wannabe Scott Walker vetoed 104 items of the Republican-backed state budget over the weekend, including making a tweak to his controversial proposal to drug test some individuals before they’re able to receive food assistance.
Unfortunately, Walker didn’t make the proposal more humane and compassionate.
Instead, he made it even worse.
According to a report by Think Progress, Walker partially vetoed restrictions on who would be drug tested. Instead of merely testing applicants for food assistance who could be said to have a “reasonable suspicion” of being drug users, Walker removed that caveat so that anyone applying for the program could be drug tested. Walker also struck out the provision that requires the state to pay for drug treatment for those who failed the test.
Walker should have vetoed the entire item. Drug testing individuals before they can receive food assistance is immoral, a way to punish people who are down on their luck. It has nothing to do with employability, as Walker maintains, nor will it force a drug user to actually get clean. Walker’s plan will merely force people into the shadows and become more reliant on private charity or turn to crime.
Walker’s proposal is on shaky legal grounds, so it may never come to fruition. But it does play well before Republicans crowds as he positions himself as an uber-conservative out to destroy the public safety net for everyone but the corporate welfare recipients who donate to his campaigns. Walker may be the son of a Baptist minister and talk directly with God, but he certainly isn’t showing much Christian charity as he feeds his ego on the campaign trail.
