{"id":35940,"date":"2013-04-23T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35940"},"modified":"2013-04-23T10:14:15","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T15:14:15","slug":"an-idea-whose-time-has-come-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35940","title":{"rendered":"An Idea Whose Time Has Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best legislation happens when sarcasm turns into policy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

When Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, introduced an amendment that would require drug tests for Minnesota welfare recipients, Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, countered with an amendment to the amendment. If welfare recipients had to pee in a cup before they could get a check from the state, she said, state lawmakers should have to do the same.<\/p>\n

“You should be ashamed. You should really be ashamed to be using poor kids” to score political points, Liebling told Drazkowski during floor debate.<\/p>\n

Blanket drug tests for lawmakers, she said, makes about as much sense as blanket testing of participants in the Minnesota Family Investment Program, or MFIP.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which every single Minnesotan responds “Hell yeah!” \u00a0 And those of us who work in the private sector added “if we have to take the whiz test before job offers become official, then yes, let’s make sure both welfare recipients and the legislature, and maybe every single government employee, does the same”.<\/p>\n

To their credit, so did the House:<\/p>\n

Liebling’s amendment might have been ironic, but it won enthusiastic support from both sides of the aisle. Liebling’s amendment to the amendment was adopted with the support of all but a dozen lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Thissen. Drazkowski’s amendment passed by a vote of 83-49.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m sure the amendment will get scrubbed out over time. \u00a0But for the moment, it makes epic sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best legislation happens when sarcasm turns into policy: When Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, introduced an amendment that would require drug tests for Minnesota welfare recipients, Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, countered with an amendment to the amendment. If welfare recipients had to pee in a cup before they could get a check from the state, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35940"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35951,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35940\/revisions\/35951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}