Here is what I have identified as being "wrong" about this Bill:
- Archaic Research: The Bill is based on a national longitudinal study conducted from 1997 to 2003 of mothers. The study includes the variable "alcohol" and does not include prescription drugs. The study then verifies its external reliability with other studies going back to the late 1980s, early 1990s. The study contains extreme bias, too numerous for me to identify, and is not applicable to general regions as proposed in its creation of one-year pilot program. It is gender-biased as it relies strictly on mothers. Fathers raise kids, too. Where is the daddy research reference?
- Redundant Services: The Fiscal Analysis does not identify the duplication of services. The political platform to launch this "reform" was structured, unknowingly, on Child Protective Services. Case workers are mandated reporters, meaning they have a duty under the law to report suspected abuse and neglect. The purpose of CPS, or at least what it is suppose to do under the federal modified settlement agreement, is to provide services to parents in dire need. This Bill would create a significant increase in foster care workloads to a system that is already overburdened and dysfunctional.
- Protective Payee: TRANSLATION: CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
- Expansion of Government: If the backers of this Bill are suppose to be against expansion of government, then why is it creating more governmental jobs? The funding source is Medicaid which has no oversight mechanism in fraudulent billing of child welfare, which is what has Michigan already in hot water.
Considering the fact that there will be an open spigot for mental health funding (a.k.a. Medicaid) means the Republicans of Michigan support Obamacare.
I state that this is a job creation Bill, but it does not create jobs for the mothers, or fathers, who cannot find one. The Bill is based upon some out-dated research which I have found to be a national trend.
Guess out-dated RFP research is what one would consider to be "conservative" thinking.
Where are our social scientists? Come on, we need newer studies.
House Bill 4118: Require drug testing of welfare applicants
Passed 25 to 11 in the Senate on March 20, 2014, to require a one-year pilot program in at least three counties that would require drug testing of state welfare benefit recipients and applicants if an "empirical screening tool" indicates a reasonable suspicion of drug use. Benefits would be halted for six months if a person tests positive or refuses to take the test, with an exception for medical marijuana. If a welfare recipient who is a parent tests positive, the child would still be eligible for assistance, and a "protective payee" would be designated to receive the parent's welfare money. The bill appropriates $500,000 for the pilot program.
See Who Voted "Yes" and Who Voted "No" at http://www.michiganvotes.org/
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
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