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.

Targeting Poor and Unemployed for Drug Problem distracts from growing Employee Drug use Problem.

Here's something I'm still wrestling with. The unemployed and underemployed must now be tested, treated and drug-free, to receive food stamps (eventually BadgerCare). The excuse? Employers are unhappy with unreliable drugged out applicants. So businesses talked their compliant Republicans political servants into making taxpayers pay for drug testing, so they don't have to; WPR:

With low unemployment, some companies are finding it difficult to find suitable workers. And finding ones who are drug-free can add an extra challenge ... some companies have half their new hires fail a drug test and some companies are considering whether to continue screening.

So one group must be utterly clean, while the other group is becoming more addicted and costing businesses too much to continue drug testing? The poor are being stigmatized while drug-using employees are becoming a bigger and bigger problem?

New data analyzing employee drug test results have been released ... Data shows that between 2016 and 2017 the nation has seen major increases in positive test results for cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana ... positive test results for meth went up 167 percent in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio ... 4.2 percent of workers tested were drug positive in 2017. In Wisconsin it was 4.8 percent.

Employers are actually afraid to drug test their employees because replacing them would be difficult:

"Every client meeting we go to we have companies that aren’t CDL (commercial drivers license) so they aren’t technically required to test, questioning if they should because they can’t get good (job candidates) to pass the drug screen."

Legalized Marijuana a big drug testing problem companies are suddenly confronting:

Samantha Devore, who oversees drug testing at Bellin Health for trucking firms, said, "We have companies ask us flat out 'Is there a test that doesn’t include marijuana?' The U.S. DOT will never allow illegal substances to be accepted in their drug panel and in most states it is still an illegal drug."

No surprise, Democrats are also on top of this problem:

Recently a bill was introduced by Rep. David Bowen, D-Milwaukee, that would ban marijuana testing for most jobs.

Manufacturers answer to Walker's Job Training, Drug Testing, Minimum Hours Labor Scam? Automation Push!

There’s nothing wrong with automation. It’s inevitable. Which is why so many economists are kicking around the idea of a “basic income” for the possible under and unemployed labor force of the future. No one is sure what the tech and information economy will bring, or how many good paying jobs will be created, so a backup program like a “basic income” is getting some attention now. 

Which makes Scott Walker's plan; drug testing/minimum hourly requirement/job training such a blatantly cruel scam and business knows it.

Check out what's really going on behind the scenes and just how seriously business is taking Walker's "reforms:" 

A concerted effort to boost manufacturing productivity in Wisconsin is gaining momentum … The Transformational Productivity Initiative (TPI) consists of a diagnostic assessment and strategy implementation … to boost their productivity, in large part, because of ongoing labor pool issues.

Job Training, or Dropping People from Food Stamps and Health Care? It’s a way to dump Wisconsinites from safety net programs, saving money that Republicans can hand out to keep companies in our state, real "free market-like."

While we know the malarkey over the “skills gap” was a business con to import cheap foreign labor, it’s now morphing into an corporate image saving conversions to automation. Nice to know Walker’s effort to job train isn’t being taken seriously by big business in Wisconsin. So how do manufacturers see us, family supporting real human beings?

Kelly Armstrong, director of sector strategy development for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (said) “TPI is a long-term solution, and being more productive and efficient is part of the solution to the talent gap, the body gap and the skills gap,”

Randy Bertram, director of sustainability and operational excellence at the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership, said “There are workforce issues that aren’t going to change any time soon and this will at least partially offset a decline in workforce participation. Companies are making fairly significant investments in automation technology.” Productivity depends in part on the efficiency of workers, but a larger influence is technological advancement.

With Industry 4.0, also called the fourth industrial revolution, companies are utilizing sensors and “smart” machinery to make their manufacturing processes ever more efficient ... TPI is working with Wisconsin manufacturers to implement the groundbreaking productivity-boosting practices. 

Productivity Flat in Walker's Wisconsin, who knew: And the truth continues to dribble out:

“Productivity equals prosperity,” said Lee Swindall, vice president of sector strategy development with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). “But we’ve been literally flat in manufacturing productivity since 2004. I was flummoxed. We have a major productivity problem.”

Despite wage growth being almost nonexistent in Wisconsin, we're being told...

What’s more, the combination of rising real wages and declining productivity is a recipe for inflation.

N. Carolina GOP's Big Government drug test for 7,600 welfare recipients kicked out 9 users.

The Republican push to punish the poor has degenerated to simple humiliation via the food stamp drug testing program. 

While tightwad conservative voters want to keep more of their hard earned money, they’re perfectly fine wasting cash on humiliating the needy with drug tests for the innocent.

Public policy through intimidation, a roaring success? Nope, the proof is in again; out of 7,600 recipients, 21 tested positive, 12 of which had their food stamps reduced because they had kids. 9 lost their food stamps. Success?

North Carolina revealed early results on Tuesday from a round of drug tests given to those applying for or living with the help of welfare.

From the 7,600 recipients and applicants given an initial screening, social workers referred only 2% for drug testing. That amounted to 89 people. Of those 89, 21 people tested positive for drugs, representing less than 0.3% of the total number of those screened. Of the 21 people who tested positive for drugs, 12 of them will receive reduced benefits because they take care of children in need of support.

Here are a few other "success" stories:

Walker's presidential strategy portrays Minimum Wage Work Force as Unreliable Employees taking Drugs.

The latest Republican attack on the lower and middle class is the ugliest and most degrading one yet, hoping to justify low wages for everybody not lovably wealthy.

First, you have to believe the poor and middle class aren't interested in showing up for work every day. And they wonder why they’re getting minimum wages.

    

Second, you have to believe their drug habit is keeping them from getting a higher wage job.

Enter Scott Walker, who’s running for president on these two important divide and conquer points, highlighted below:

Governor Scott Walker: “As I traveled my state, I hear employers, small business owners say, overwhelming: ‘We have jobs. We just need workers. And we need two things: people who know how to show up every day for work, five days a week, and gimme someone who can pass a drug test.'”

But I challenge anyone who believes this, to rationalize away the the example below, which is a typical situation for most low income workers:

For Wisconsin workers who currently depend on public assistance, like 21-year-old Milwaukee waitress Peyton Smith, the burden of the law would be much more personal.

“For [Governor Walker] to put another barrier in front of us is like saying we’re guilty, but we’re not guilty,” Smith told ThinkProgress. “It’s already hard to go down there and file for government assistance. We have to report in every day, fill out papers. Now I have to take the time out of my busy schedule to take a drug test? Come on!”

Smith, who has a three-year-old daughter and another baby due soon, works about 20 hours a week at Denny’s — though she has repeatedly requested full-time employment. Because it’s a tipped job, she makes just $2.33 an hour, and currently relies on food stamps to feed her family.

“I’m willing to work. I’m not lazy at all,” she said. “But the jobs we can get are horrible, low pay, and we can’t get the hours we need. As a parent, it just sucks. I want things that are healthy for her, but the fruits and vegetables she needs to grow as young child are expensive.”

And yet, Smith will get Walker's drug test, because it's all part of the plan to define her as an unreliable employee and lazy drug addict who deserves to be on a minimum wage. A hike in the wage will only encourage her. She's where she belongs:

Jennifer Epps-Addison with Wisconsin Jobs Now ... accused the Governor of “stigmatizing the hardest working people in our economy. "There were times even I couldn’t navigate the process, as a law student with a college degree. The system is set up to disempower people and make them frustrated enough to give up before receiving the help they need.”

And of course, our pocket conservative constitutionalists are not deterred by...the constitution:

Courts have ruled that similar mandatory drug testing programs imposed by other states and the federal government were unconstitutional.

Walker phasing out Welfare, FoodShare, Medicaid and Unemployment with bogus screening Questionnaire.

Republicans have found a way to make us lose every one of our safety nets. And what will happen to the people and families who need public assistance. It's anybody’s guess. 

Scott Walker is now requiring a drug test for all public assistance programs, against federal law, and offered this Orwellian explanation:

Walker: "We're not making it harder to get government assistance, we making it easier to get a job."

Two completely different goals. Walker inadvertently acknowledges that it will make getting government assistance harder by arguing that it doesn't. From WKOW's Greg Neumann:

The Wretched Democratic Response? You'll want to put your fist through the monitor with their comeback:

Rep. Peter Barca: "We look forward to the debate, I trust the process will be fair (giggle). I'm not so sure we'll agree to the outcome." 

It turns my stomach.

A similar Montana bill making the rounds nationally and now in Wisconsin, looks like this:

The bill would require anyone who applies for government assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to go through a drug screening. TANF provides temporary financial assistance for pregnant women and families with one or more dependent children. The program offers financial assistance to help pay for food, shelter, utilities, and expenses other than medical.

Yes, even pregnant women will be tested. I doubt you can get any lower than this.

Surprise, according to your Questionnaire, there's a "Reasonable Likelihood" you're Taking Drugs: In the GOP's Montana bill, applicants must willingly give up personal information to the government or risk “raising suspicions” about possible drug use. Sound coercive and an easy way to suspect anyone? Not to the rightwing authoritarian Republican Reich:

Applicants must answer a questionnaire called the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI) to determine the "likelihood of having a substance abuse disorder." If results indicate a "reasonable likelihood" of drug abuse, the applicant would be required to undergo a lab test with the state.

And what if you fight back against having your privacy invaded by big government…

Failure to complete the questionnaire and/or drug test would result in the applicant being denied benefits.

Which is the intended result, and a pretty tricky way to defeat opponents. Big government Republicans will also dump taxpayer money into a new privatized bureaucratic hoop:

In cases where a person is deemed ineligible for assistance, a third party would be authorized to accept payments for children whose parents are ineligible for benefits.

The right wings avowed enemy, the ACLU, made this persuasive argument:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana argued that because the people who receive government assistance are by definition low-income earners, this bill treats them like criminals before they even apply for financial assistance. In December 2014, the 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled that Florida's enacted version of this bill was unconstitutional and "suspicionless drug tests violates the Constitution's protection against unreasonable government searches."

Isn't it about time freedom loving Republicans challenge another constitutional protection? And because many readers don't get to see the comment section, here's one I thought was to important to not include:

lufthase: The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory mentioned above is a specific proprietary screening tool created and owned by the SASSI Institute. Because they're actual health practitioners and not RW ideologues, they have this to say about using their screening test like this:

"To use the SASSI to discriminate against individuals, such as disqualifying job applicants or to deny public assistance, violates the purpose of the SASSI and is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act."

and…
"…when public assistance is made contingent on participation in the assessment and treatment process, it increases the risk for violations of ethical principles and applicants’ rights."

The folks who wrote the damn screening test (and stand to profit from its use) say this is not a legitimate use of their test. Shout it from the mountaintops!

Walker Drug Testing takes food from needy, creates more government bureaucracy, shreds Constitution, thinks he should be president?

Remember Scott Walker’s recent slip admitting we’re not all “born equally free and independent?” Taking the state constitutional wording…

"All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain and inherent rights...."

Walker tweaks just how equal with…

"…it doesn't matter what class you were born into … here, opportunity should be as equal as possible. As equal as possible!"

He said it like it was right there in constitution, repeating it, with emphasis.

Now we’re finding out that a person’s “freedom” can be tweaked too. Unemployed? You just lost your constitutional protection against an unreasonable government search. Like Walker said.

"With this budget, we are addressing some of the barriers keeping people from achieving true freedom and prosperity and the independence that comes with having a good job and doing it well."

And Walker will make sure those barriers are in place and enforced. Walker stuck in a lot of qualifiers too. Let's unpack that; drugs are a barrier to freedom, and until you are drug free, have a “good” job and you’re doing it well, you aren't technically "as" free. Am I playing word games and reaching a bit?

Like the ACLU wrote in the Florida case: 

“…offensive assumption that public benefits recipients use drugs at higher rates than the general public, and imply that the privacy rights of poor people and communities are worth less than those of the gainfully employed…”

Any conservative pocket constitutionalist, who still has a version that includes the 4th Amendment, might want to read it again. Simply put it protects against unreasonable government searches.

Victims of GOP policies next big target for Rep. Robin Vos.

In a rambling piece of word salad ego-nomics, Rep. Robin Vos made this claim:

“Assembly Republicans also will work to limit the growth of government.” 

That's funny. He’s joking of course. Did you see what they did to regulate deer hunting?

Take a look at the following plan for “entitlements.” Tell me if this isn't a jumbled mess of regulatory hoops to jump through from our big government Republican overlords:

WSJ: Assembly Republicans released an agenda for the upcoming session, which included several entitlement reform ideas. They include drug-testing those receiving public benefits, discontinuing assistance for those who test positive and offering treatment options; having electronic cards with photos for all public benefit transactions and limiting the number of replacement cards; ensuring welfare payments reflect completed work and a portion of food stamps are used on nutritious food; and sending an annual statement of benefits to all public assistance recipients.

Yikes. Ready for this "stand with Walker" tightwads? Florida spent $500,000 conducting the tests, catching 20 out of nearly 33,000 applicants, and another $400,000 defending the program in court…which they lost. 

All of this blustery bullshit to energize the base, or just reckless GOP spending? I wonder.

Scott Walker pushes Unconstitutional Drug Testing for Food Stamps. Other Big Government tests not far behind?

Funny thing on the way to a Republican one party police state, those standing up for their constitutional rights were denied food stamps. Think how far Republicans can push drug testing for whatever they eventually feel needs a little tough love.

Even worse, Americans don’t understand what Republicans mean when they insist on changing federal programs to state controlled block grants; no federal strings attached to the block granted money, which means the GOP can require any test they’d like to penalize and choke off benefits. Cruel? They’d tell you to get a job, the kind they know will never be created through tax cuts.

Let’s take a look at what’s already happened with drug testing that ended up costing taxpayers in Missouri $25,000 for each of the 20 positive tests…don’t complain, it’s the principle that matters. WSJ:

In Missouri, over an eight-month period, 636 drug tests were administered, yielding 20 positive tests at a cost of $500,000, the Kansas City Star reported in December. Two hundred people refused to take the tests and were denied benefits, the Star reported.

200 people might have refused the drug test as a way to protect their constitutional rights. Ask any tea party member of a 501(c)(4) if they would take a drug test to exempt themselves from paying federal taxes?

812 people applied for assistance, according to figures from the Tennessee Department of Human Services cited by The Tennessean. Four who refused to participate in the process were denied benefits. Six who answered “yes” were tested, and one failed. In all, five were denied benefits.

Scott Walker iisn'tlooking out for the taxpayers, he’s using that empty excuse to push is ideological doctrine that sometimes saves money, but most of the time wastes it (like the Medicaid money).

And look at the chart showing the rise, fall, and rise again of food stamp assistance. Come on, this is an easy one. 

The rise and fall coincides with the economic job swings seen in the Bill Clinton years through Bush and the Great Recession. Businesses large and small were wiped out and those that did survive changed their business model to a bare bones full time staff with part timers brought in only when seasonally necessary. The chart has nothing to do with freeloaders or drug addicts. 

Revealed: Incidental Governor Walker serves up Word Salad Non-Answers.

This is a test: Try to pull a clear "sound bite" position from any one of Scott Walker's non-answers.

We're going to look at the reason why Scott Walker won reelection in Milwaukee as their County Executive, and why he could win reelection as governor.

Walker earned the name "incidental governor" way back as county executive when he forced the board to raise taxes for him. He's still playing it safe, this time letting the legislature send him radically right wing bills he claims were never on his radar.

It was the Journal Sentinel's gift to Wisconsinites when their editorial board peppered Walker with a string of tough questions he typically steers clear of.

In a surreal, almost comedic Q and A, Walker ducks away every time with his word salad non-answers. Seriously, its as slick a con as you'll ever see.

Walker said donors ought to be public: That's what he said, all the while concealing contributions by directing money into 3rd party groups. Pretty cut and dried, except for his non-answer :



Does Walker...think a fetus is a citizen; still oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest; still want abortions banned after 20 weeks; opposes some forms of contraception? Non-answers to all, despite the JS questioning. Just as shocking, our incidental governor went further: He criticized the questions because they weren't important. He backed that up by saying no one is asking similar questions at public appearances. Weird:



Drug Testing for Veterans, and Cut Funding for Drug rehab centers while demanding drug testing for public benefits: Another big non-answer:



Minimum Wage: Walker says raising the minimum wage doesn't serve a purpose, ignores the massive low wage economy we have right NOW by offering dreams of abundant high wage jobs in the future, and tried to reshape poll responses to the simple question about raising the minimum wage. Amazingly, non-answers to all questions.

The biggest problem with the job market seems to be newly created jobs that pay less, on the whole, than the jobs that have disappeared.

Walker undercuts, and even contradicts his election year pursuit of creating high wage jobs, in a story he told about a woman who had her pay cut before losing her job. That's an honest look at today's jobs market:



Earned Income Tax Credit: Walker increased taxes on the working poor by reducing their EITC. His reason? Walker blames the poor for supposedly seeking low wage jobs so they can keep their public benefits. Hold on there. That's what big businesses like WalMart are doing right now. It's one big upside down non-answer:



Again, he's got no clearly stated position. Walker dispenses word salads that say nothing, leaving him free to avoid being identified with the right wing agenda he's forced to sign into law. Poor guy, he could use four more years.

Walker springs Big Government Drug Test on Wisconsinites who we all know are drug addicts.

Boy, we’re so not in Wisconsin anymore.

Scott Walker’s talk of actually drug testing childless individuals getting unemployment and/or food stamps is the height of big government Republicanism. So now we can confirm the unemployed are drug addicted freeloaders? Can you say kick ‘em when they’re down? Unconstitutional?

What Republicans don't want to deal with are the “free market” consequences of their corporate offshoring/inversion policies. Yea, go after the guy who lost his job instead of asking why big business has scaled down their workforce while pushing their "job creator" myth. And Republicans continue to use the courts to push for everything they want:

Gov. Scott Walker's promises for a second term include cutting property and income taxes for individuals and requiring drug tests for those seeking unemployment and food stamp benefits. "We believe that there will potentially be a fight with the federal government and in court. ... Our goal here is not to make it harder to get government assistance; it's to make it easier to get a job," Walker said.

Walker rationalizes unwarranted drug testing by suggesting he's actually helping the unemployed pass their employer drug test. What a guy? Did you ever get the idea this guy never had a real job in his life? Who requires drug tests? Let's start with politicians? I wish.
 

Rep. Robin Vos had to chime in:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said ... that the federal government should take its cues from state officials and try to help them reach goals like that rather than hinder them. "The system is upside down. It should be us pushing them," Vos said.

John Nygren loves the idea too, and said so on WPR’s Joy Cardine Show, included in the audio clip below. But what Walker, Vos and Nygren are proposing is only a starting point. Despite the unconstitutional nature of drug test, the following repugnant rant contains many of the ideas above, and a few additional suggestions mentioned often by Rep. Paul Ryan. Let’s be clear, this is how conservatives think, starting with Nygren, and ending with former Arizona state senator Russell Pearce:

Huffinton Post: Former Arizona state Senator Russell Pearce resigned as Arizona Republican Party's first vice chair late Sunday after receiving criticism over recent comments he made about women on Medicaid.

"You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I'd do is get [female recipients] Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations," Pearce said. "Then, we'll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to [reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job … (people out there [who] need help) " should get it from "family, church, and community," not the government.

“No cash for Ding Dongs and Ho Hos, you’d only get money for 15-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and powdered milk – all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want a steak or frozen pizza, then you’d have to get a job. Ever live in a military barracks? You’ll maintain your property in a clean, good state of repair, and your home will be subjected to an inspection at any time, possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or an X-Box 360, then get a job.”

 Ironically, Pearce and most Republicans call the above “small government?” Oh, and the old tube TV's, you can't buy them anymore, so enough with with the big flat panel TV talk:

Pearce insisted he favored a small-government solution to poverty.

Pearce is like every other Republicans, he’s a freeloader:

When he’s not hosting his KKNT-AM program, Pearce helps promote the Elderly Assistance Fund in his taxpayer-paid position in the Maricopa County treasurer’s office ... paid $85,000 a year in that role, the newspaper reported, and he also draws a public pension from previous government work. Pearce accepted but didn't report nearly $40,000 in paid junkets and college football tickets from Fiesta Bowl officials while helping them receive state subsidies.