Poll Shows Americans Favor Drug-Testing Members of Congress

WASHINGTON — While most Americans like the idea of drug testing for welfare recipients, they LOVE the idea of drug testing members of Congress.

According to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, 64 percent of Americans favor requiring welfare recipients to submit to random drug testing — a measure pushed by Republican lawmakers in recent years — while 18 percent oppose it. But an even stronger majority said they’re in favor of random drug testing for members of Congress, by a 78 percent to 7 percent margin. Sixty-two percent said they “strongly” favor drug testing for congressional lawmakers, compared to only 51 percent who said the same of welfare recipients.

The House of Representatives passed legislation this year that would allow states to require food stamp recipients to pee in cups to prove they’re not on drugs. In 2012, Republicans pushed for drug testing of people seeking unemployment insurance benefits when they lose their jobs. At the state level, GOP lawmakers across the country have sought drug testing for an array of safety net programs. (Politicians sometimes refer to means-tested government benefits in general as “welfare,” although the term is more commonly a nickname for the relatively small Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.)

Democrats have frequently suggested that if drug tests are good for people getting a hand from the government, then they’re good for people running the government, too. Republicans usually don’t go along with that idea — the Kansas state legislature is one recent exception — but voters heartily approve.

Read the entire article at Huffington Post.