Maine Gov. Paul LePage Will Starve Your Kids, Because You're Probably A Gross Junkie Anyway

So, we know that Maine Gov. Paul LePage is an asshole, and that he likes to do everything he can to fuck the poors. Now, he has come up with a new trick, in the form of Maine LD 1407 , which proscribes a whole new set of hoops to jump through if you want to keep getting welfare or food stamps through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF program). Here, have some drug tests! Hope you don't fail them, otherwise we just might take away your benefits, even if you have kids and stuff! Oh, and if you've been convicted of a drug crime, fuck you too :

The LePage administration urged lawmakers on Monday to deny welfare benefits to people with felony drug convictions and to screen applicants for substance abuse problems, saying its bill sends a message that tax dollars will not be used to reward what one official called “reprehensible personal behavior.”

But civil liberties and social services organizations warned that the measure could hurt the children of addicts – as well as adults who have turned their lives around – and further stigmatize a population that already struggles to find adequate treatment in Maine.

TANF and food stamp benefits are prohibited by the federal government for those who have been convicted of drug-related felonies, but states are allowed to enact waivers for those who can prove that they're clean. This bill strikes Maine's existing waiver that lays out just such a process for convicted drug offenders, because they're probably just junkies anyway.

If you're not a convicted drug felon, but the lady at the government office thinks you're probably a junkie crack ho anyway, she can give you a questionnaire to fill out, to find out if you might be a junkie crack ho. If you fail the questionnaire (let us guess, you will probably fail the questionnaire), the state gets to demand that you take a drug test. If you refuse, or if you fail, Maine can say "No food for your kids, LOL!" Even though drug testing welfare recipients is not very effective, as we already know, which is why all the Republican governors, like LePage, want to do that now.

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They are doing this to encourage people to Just Say No to poorness, and also to drugs, that'll teach 'em. Explain yourselves, assholes who are being assholes, like your asshole governor:

Holly Lusk, senior health policy adviser for the governor, said the bill would bring Maine into compliance with the intent of the federal law regarding drug convictions and would help protect children by encouraging addicted parents to seek treatment. [...]

Those comments prompted an exchange with committee member Rep. Frances Head, R-Bethel, who said it ultimately comes down to “adult choice” and whether drug users choose their children over their addiction.

“A lot of people in my district are adamant that something needs to be done, and this bill gets it going,” Head said.

Yes, we are sure that all the people in the various districts of Maine are pounding down the doors of the legislature every day, screaming "There are children of former drug addicts, and they got the last baloney slices at the grocery store, the ones I WANTED!" Because, in case you already forgot, Gov. LePage is ALSO pushing a bill to make sure none of the poors are allowed to buy "taxable food" at the grocery stores, which includes things like gourmet baloney and bulk food items.

Susan Lamb, head of the social workers union chapter in Maine (so probably a LIBTARD), said that, duh, this is going to end up hurting kids more than it helps anyone, pointing out that those hungry children "have no control over their parents' poor behavior." She also said, hey, if you're going to do this, are you going to spend more money on the foster care system in Maine, to deal with the increased need that comes from denying parents' the ability to feed their kids? Oh, you aren't? She was just asking.

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The good news is that this bill is unlikely to pass, as it stands, because Democrats control the Maine House, and they don't understand how important it is to fuck poors. But don't worry: Republicans in Maine, led by evil skidmark Gov. Paul LePage, will keep looking for new ways to make sure the poor people of his state know exactly how disgusted everybody is with them. 

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It's the American way.

[ Portland Press Herald / Maine LD 1407   via   Addicting Info ]