Pointing and Laughing

In “Well, no shit” news today, Florida’s lost a bunch of money drug-testing its welfare applicants over a 4-month period.  To the tune of over $45,000, lawmakers in Florida found out that not only did the number of applicants not go down, but only 2% of the tests were positive (most for marijuana use).  The state had to reimburse the applicants who passed, so the state ended up paying more for the testing than if the applicants had received benefits.  Which leads me to say:

HA, HA, TOLD YOU SO.  I FUCKIN TOLD YOU SO. 

Like I always say...FUCK OFF...er, I was right.

The Feminist Breeder shared a link yesterday about the failure of this program to prove…well, anything they wanted it to prove, that’s for sure.  Some of the comments on TFB’s facebook page were eye-rollers.  Some woman said “What’s harsh is when u go apply at the welfare office and in the parking lot u c brand new cars.  They don’t belong to the workers.  Its all the other people on welfare.”  How does one go about discovering this information?  Did this odd woman ask around in the office, applicants and employees alike, to identify the make, model, and year of their vehicles?  I’m pretty sure she wasn’t just talking out of her ass, you guys.  Probably.  You might say it’s none of this lady’s fucking business who drives what, when they got it, how much they paid for it, etc. 

But!  Drug testing is not unfair to poor people, and it’s not discrimination, as some other person points out smartly. 

It’s not discrimination when you are asking tax payers and the government to financially support you.  Just because someone passes a drug test does not mean they are drug free.  I know tons of people who have collected their child’s urine in order to pass a test.  Many people slip through the cracks.  Millions.

Listen, she knows thousands of pounds’ worth of people who use their child’s urine to pass a piss test.  Who knows how many people that is!  Though if they’re poor, they must be fat, amirite, commenter?  All those munchies from the weed and the crap food they buy with their food stamps, you know. 

And don’t dare question her, because this chick knows what she’s talking about.  “Millions is an accurate statement.  Millions of welfare receivers nationwide are on drugs and use the free money for illegal purposes.  Also online reports can be biased and missing key information.  Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t make it true.”  Except what she just said.  That’s true. 

Besides, this happened to another commenter: 

This is a tough one for me…i was at the grocery store recently and the couple behind me smelled of pot so badly that my nose burned.  When they paid for their groceries, they paid with a welfare debit card.  Im all for helping the truly needy, but if u can afford to buy pot, I don’t need to buy your groceries.

A commenter who WASN’T an asshole pointed out that that commenter does not know that the couple bought the weed.  Stoners, as she pointed out, are notoriously generous.  Maybe someone gave them a bud.  Maybe they grow their own.  Either way, though, who gives a shit.  It’s not commenter X’s job to police the welfare recipients.  NOR IS SHE PAYING FOR ANYONE’S GROCERIES.  Not really, not any more than I’m paying for her roads and for her local fire department.  So STFU already with the whining, “I shouldn’t have to pay for that,” because you DON’T. 

Of course people on welfare use drugs—some of them.  Just like some congresspeople.  Just like some ranchers.  Just like some teachers.  Just like some internet commenters.  Just like some line cooks.  Just like some restaurant owners.  Just like some of every group everywhere ever.  Folks on public assistance don’t have the market cornered on drug use and government fraud.  So lay the fuck off.  And can I just say it one more time?

TOLD YOU SO.  TOLD YOU SO.  TOOOOOOOOOOLD YOU SOOOO. 

Who cares about poor people?

Not the GOP. Nope, not at all. Being a poor person, of course I already knew the mouthpieces of the republican party think I’m lazy and uneducated. I know that for various reasons they think I should both stop having babies and stop aborting babies.

And also apparently the stupid Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation doesn't care about low-income women.  The Foundation pulled its funding from Planned Parenthood, which move was announced yesterday. The foundation, which has come under fire for various dealings, did so because Planned Parenthood is under a congressional investigation on account of some superamazing undercover work in which spies found PP employees to be doing their jobs! Advocating for women’s health! Scandalous, indeed. So the new vice pres of the Komen Foundation just happens to be a woman who ran for governor of Georgia partially on a platform of defunding PP. And the guidelines about not being able to fund an organization under congressional investigation? New.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure does not care about poor women’s health. Hundreds of thousands of women will go without breast cancer screens now, because surprisingly, there aren’t a lot, or any in many areas, places that do free or cheap cancer screenings. Despite anti-choicers efforts to the contrary, us poor women haven’t been tossed under the hearse yet.

Planned Parenthood has already launched a Breast Health Emergency Fund to offset the untenable actions of the Komen Foundation. Led with a grant of $250,000 by the Amy and Lee Fikes Foundation, the fund will work immediately to allow PP to keep performing life-saving screening and care. “We are deeply alarmed that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure from a vocal minority,” Karl Eastlund, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, said.

Eastlund’s alarmed, but I bet he’s not surprised, and neither am I. More and more it’s obvious that the vocal minority is getting louder, and if you listen, this is what they’re saying to the rank and file: You don’t matter.

Look, I’m not going to ask you to donate to the Emergency Fund, because you’re probably as broke as I am, and I get annoyed with all the “Donate if you can” stuff, because I DO want to, but I can't. But I know that our pro-choice, pro-women pens are mightier than the swords of holier-than-thou-ness wielded by many enemies of folks in poverty. We may be poor, but we deserve, yes, ARE ENTITLED TO, healthcare. I’m grateful for those who remember that, like our Senator Patty Murray, like the Amy and Lee Fikes Foundation,and like Planned Parenthood.