Arizona drug-tested 87,000 welfare recipients and found they are flushing taxpayer dollars

[Playinghardball]

From Gregory Krieg at Mic:

The results are thin: According to USA Today, three years after the program began Arizona had tested more than 87,000 welfare recipients. The total number of drug cheats caught was exactly one — a single positive result, which saved the state precisely $560.
Checking in again in March, the Arizona Sonora News Service cited state Department of Economic Security figures which found that over the course of more than five years, "42 people have been asked to take a follow-up drug test and 19 actually took the test, 16 of whom passed. The other 23 were stripped of their benefits for failing to take the drug test."

That adds up to a grand total of three failed tests from 2009-2014. The net savings reaped from withholding benefits for those who either tested positive or failed to complete a drug test was around $3,500, once the $500 cost of testing the 19 is factored in, according to one state agency report. The haul is shockingly unimpressive when you consider the $1.7 million in savings state officials promised when they began the program.

Three. Three failed tests in 5 years of testing. The program needlessly embarrasses people who need public assistance and the cost-ratio benefit just isn't there for taxpayers. It's time to end these programs, not expand them. It's the moral and fiscally-conservative thing to do. .

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/22/1404639/-Arizona-drug-tested-87-000-welfare-recipients-and-found-they-are-flushing-taxpayer-dollars

[hobbit709]

1. I notice they're not mentioning the cost of those tests.

[virtualobserver]

4. about $2.3 million n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. or which crony got the contract to do the testing. n/t

[virtualobserver]

2. start testing Republican legislators.....

much higher percentage of failed tests, I'll bet.

[world wide wally]

10. Republican legislators would fail an IQ test

[olddots]

3. drug testing is a very lucrative business

Naturally the turd maggots love it .

[Angry Dragon]

5. Follow the Money --- find out who owns the testing labs

[Sherman A1]

6. Precisely

[malaise]

8. Thread winner

Some politician's relative has a nice racket going

[Bonx]

7. The articles I read indicated only 42 people have been tested

"When applying for TANF benefits, 42 people have been asked to take a follow-up drug test and 19 actually took the test, 16 of whom passed. The other 23 were stripped of their benefits for failing to take the drug test.

The reason so few people must take the test is because reasonable cause is needed, said Nicole Moon, a public information officer for DES. When someone is approved to receive welfare benefits in Arizona, that person is screened by being given a three-question form, which asks if the recipient has used any illegal drugs in the past 30 days. If the applicant answers yes, then a drug test is required."

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/030615_welfare_drug_test/welfare-drug-tests-fail-save-az-predicted-cash/

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Florida discovered the same thing.

48 more to go before the right-wingers become believers.

[phantom power]

11. It won't matter. The Serious People all "know" those welfare takers are morally suspect.

No amount of evidence is going to penetrate their hermetically sealed world view.

[turbinetree]

13. And lets forget not all the folks that voted in SCOTTY WALKER.................

and his promise to drug test all people that are down on there luck and have no jobs because of this little right wing cronies and his right wing hypocrites installed in good old Wisconsin, the same stuff--------------------nothing but irresponsible conservatism,


The proverbial dog chasing the tail there Scotty what do your Koch , Alec backers have to say for themselves.
I think the people of Wisconsin deserve some answers also--------Arizona is a flop ( Brewer ) signed this law

[etherealtruth]

14. Everyone that has done this has found the same damned thing!

its a humiliating experience for those in need and a financial windfall for the companies doing the testing

[SoapBox]

15. Pukes and Baggers hate Americans.

And...they are the worst money mangers ever.

[YOHABLO]

16. Need to find the connection between the legislature and the testing company. $$$ bingo!

[Still In Wisconsin]

17. So, naturally, we're going to start doing this in Wisconsin.

Governor Howdy Doody ran on this. It makes me weep.

[spanone]

18. it's another bullshit republican 'problem' like voter fraud.

[0rganism]

19. goal: turn the down-on-their-luck people into another permanent underclass

they already have the blacks and the illegal immigrants to keep wages low and insecure whitey's ego inflated, but another group of lowballers can't hurt, right? the problem with this is apparently twofold:
1. not that many people answer the TANF questions in such a way as to be eligible for the tests, and of those that are, only half are failing the test or opting not to take it
2. that 3rd permanent underclass will be disproportionately composed of unemployed meth-cooking GOP base voters; additional repression of blacks and immigrants is redundant.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. kick

[OnionPatch]

21. I doubt they'll see that as a sign of failure.

The program was meant to shame the poor and put the idea in the public's mind that those needing assistance are mostly shiftless druggies and degenerates. I don't think they mind the price tag at all as long as it does those things.