Walker walking backwards with Drug Testing during Labor Shortage, and Business is moving forward.

The recent court decision stopping work requirements for Medicaid recipients made it perfectly clear why: Medicaid wasn't designed to be a jobs program, it's a healthcare program. 

As I've mentioned before, the inhumane idea of withholding their health care to force people to work is beyond cruel, it's unthinkable, Dickensian. Yet it's being treated as another brilliant idea by Republicans dead set on blaming someone for something, anything, including the sin of unemployment.  

Now add to that, drug testing for health care and even food stamps, which is weaponizing the politics of resentment:

DWD: Pre-Employment Drug Testing Program Helps Workers Move from Dependence to Independence by Secretary Ray Allen: We have nearly 100,000 jobs available on Wisconsin's JobCenterofWisconsin.com website, and approximately 89,000 individuals in Wisconsin are unemployed. That’s right, we have more available jobs than we do people to fill them.

Not exactly. It makes more sense that during this worker shortage, businesses won't be so quick to walk away from a drug using job seeker, especially experienced potential employees. 

Something else. Wouldn't the state be giving "health care" to treat drug users anyway? 

Check out this great point by point easy to understand assessment of the jobs picture now and in the future by Manpower Group's Becky Frankiewicz. At about 2:30 into the clip, drug testing comes up, and Frankiewicz reveals that companies have changed their minds about using drug testing as a disqualifier. 

In other words, Scott Walker is going in the opposite direction of businesses. Which makes his policy strictly ideological and a waste of taxpayer money and time. But that's how it has been for 8 years: 

1. 46 percent of businesses are finding it difficult to find skilled workers, up from 14 percent right after the Great Recession.

2. 61 percent say communication skills, written and verbal are most important now.

3. Finally and long overdue, half of the companies are training workers, up 34 percent over the last 4 years. They have to build their own talent. Walker would have the state finance part of that instead.

4. Relaxing education standards. Because jobs and skills are changing so quickly, it's much more about what you can do, than about what you did in the past.

5. Borrowing the talent, meaning hiring free lancers and independent contractors.

6. Relaxing drug testing and criminal background history.

7. The workforce of tomorrow is actually the workforce of today. Yikes.