Scott Walker wasting no time in trying to get Trump on board with punishing the poor
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker spends his days dreaming up ways to make the lives of low-income people even more hellish—and now he believes he has an ally in Donald Trump. He's trying to recruit the popular vote-losing president-elect in his scheme to humiliate food stamp recipients with drug testing. So he’s writing letters to the PEOTUS.
“We want your help as soon as possible,” Walker wrote, before outlining specific demands, the first of which is the ability to screen and test people who need food stamps for drug use.
While states have broad authority to change the requirements for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash welfare program, and thus 10 states have chosen to drug test applicants and recipients and deny those who refuse the tests or fail them, they currently have no such latitude over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.
But that hasn’t stopped Walker from signing a measure into law that would drug test SNAP applicants and recipients and then suing the federal government to allow him to carry it out. He’s also asked Congress to pass legislation that would give him the permission he seeks, but a bill put forward to do so failed.
Never mind that drug testing is a pretty big expense for the states that are doing it for their TANF programs, with almost no return: “tests are showing up very few positive results — in 2015, two states uncovered exactly zero.” Walker says this is just doing SNAP recipients a favor, getting them ready to get jobs by getting rid of “barriers to employment related to substance abuse.”
In truth, about one-third of families getting SNAP have at least one person who’s employed, as of a 2013 report. Another 20 percent are disabled individuals. Another 17 percent are elderly, and out of the work force. Oh, and 44 percent of households have children. So that’s nearly 70 percent of the SNAP population—not counting the kids—who don’t need Walker’s “help” in getting employment-ready. But by all means, Scottie, let’s get those grandmas peeing in plastic cups.