Welfare Idiocy

Let’s take another leftist apart, shall we? Today’s fool is Rep. Gwen Moore (Moron – WI), who has shown that she doesn’t get it. What doesn’t she get? She doesn’t get how money works of why people are sick of giving welfare to people like her. See, Moore is a former welfare dependent who wants to drug test “rich” people out of spite.

Here’s the story. Gwen is upset that people want to drug test poor people who want welfare. Ten states require this. Whined Gwen:

“Republicans continue to criminalize poverty and to put forward the narrative, the false narrative in fact, that people who are poor and reliant upon the social safety net are drug users.”

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Really? How does drug testing “criminalize” poverty in any way? It doesn't. It adds another punishment aspect to a specific crime, it does nothing vis-a-vis poverty. Moreover, if this is a “false narrative,” then why get upset at all? Wouldn't the Republicans just be wasting their time? What do you have to fear in letting them try?

Interestingly, the AP tried to back up her assertion of this being a “false narrative” by claiming that “evidence from test results from the states that [do test] indicate that [welfare recipients] are no more likely to use drugs than the general population.” Supposedly, seven states did testing and found only 427 drug users out of hundreds of thousands of users, so the evil Republicans are clearly evil liars too, right?!

Well no. This is completely misleading. According to their own data, there were 321 positive tests out of 2996 people tested, or 10.7% of people tested. One in ten is not a “false narrative.” What’s more, this doesn’t count people who refused to undergo testing. They excluded those people even though drug testers typically count those as positives. So the 10.7% number could be much, much higher. Again, not a false narrative. Indeed, I suspect that if Gwen were told that one in ten government employees belonged to the KKK, she wouldn’t willingly dismiss that as a “false narrative,” she would view finding those 10% as something critical. In this case, the Federal Government alone spends $717 billion each year on welfare (not counting medical spending or private spending). A 10% drop would save $71 billion. That's hardly irrelevant.

Anyways, to try to stop the testing, Gwen introduced a bill called the “Top 1% Accountability Act” which would require anyone who is claiming itemized deductions over $150,000 to submit a clear drug test or they won’t be able to take their deductions and will be stuck with the standardized deduction. Moronic.

Her little team of short-bussers have calculated that this will only affect people who make at least $500,000 a year. Personally, I doubt that though. Why? Because the IRS code starts wiping out your deductions once you get into the mid-$100k’s. If Gwen paid her taxes, she would probably know this.

More to the point though, Gwen has fundamentally misunderstood why people want welfare dependents tested. People want welfare recipients, like her lousy ass, tested because I work my butt off for every penny I earn, and I don’t want the government handing out my money to some lazy slug who won’t work because they would rather smoke dope. I’m willing to help someone in the short term IF they need the money to get back on their feet, but I don’t want to support their lazy lifestyle and I sure as hell don’t want to support someone who can afford to use drugs and who would rather use drugs than sort out their lives. F-off Gwen.

What’s more, I don’t see any reason to drug test wealthy, productive people because they are productive. They work hard and contribute greatly to society if they are making that kind of money. I don’t care what they do in their private lives at that point. I only care if someone wants to live off my money.

Moreover, her attempt to claim that rich people are living off me by claiming tax deductions is bull – she’s one of those who equates tax deductions with spending. That wrongly assumes that everyone owes taxes. That’s bunk. Taxes are something we have allowed the government to take, they are not something that is a right of the government. You do me no favors not robbing me, Gwen.

What's going on here is that Gwen wants to avoid the moral stigma of being a beggar. She's trying to equate taxpaying with begging and that's garbage.

Now, if you want to drug test rich recipients of government funding, I’m all for that. Let’s haul the CEO’s of any company who wants a government handout, i.e. GE, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, Warren Buffett, into the bathroom and let ’em fill that cup to the rim. I’m up for that. But don’t pretend that the people who pay taxes owe you jack or that we are wrong to insist that you stay off drugs before we share our hard-earned cash with your lazy ass.

Thoughts.