Americans To Congress: Pee In A Cup
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Florida's experiment with a law requiring all welfare recipients to be drug tested may have failed to pass constitutional muster, but the majority of the public likes applying the idea not just to welfare recipients, but also members of Congress!
According to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, 78% of Americans favor random drug testing for members of Congress, while 64% favor requiring welfare recipients to submit to random drug testing, a measure pushed by Republican lawmakers in recent years.
The House of Representatives passed legislation this year that would allow states to require food stamp recipients to submit to drug testing 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.
Florida passed legislation in 2011 requiring drug testing for welfare recipients, but it was found unconstitutional by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court ruled that the state failed to show that there was any reason to treat poor families as if they were more likely to use drugs than the general population.
Elsewhere in the poll, if a member of Congress is caught using illegal drugs, as Southwest Florida Republican Representative Trey Radel (R-Fla.) was in late October; Americans expressed little inclination to show mercy.
According to the poll, 66% said that a member of Congress convicted of possessing a small amount of cocaine should be forced to resign, while only 14% favored allowing the convicted member to serve out the remainder of his or her term.
Americans consider drug testing to be a no-brainer under a variety of circumstances, according to the survey. Seventy-two percent said they support random drug testing for members of the military, and 87% supported it for airline pilots.
