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30 Jan 2012 14:28

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Politics: Indiana Democrat foils attempt to mandate drug testing of welfare recipients

  • the planIndiana Republican Jud McMillin (yes, just one “d”) introduced a bill in the Indiana General Assembly that would have required random drug testing of welfare recipients.
  • the sabotageDemocratic legislator Ryan Dvorak added an amendment to also require drug testing for elected officials in the state. McMillin withdrew the bill. source
  • » The nitty-gritty: “If we’re going to impose standards on drug testing,” Dvorak said, “then it should apply to everybody who receives government money.” McMillin claimed that he had to withdraw the bill after Dvorak’s amendment was added, due to a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that it’s unconstitutional to drug test candidates for elected office…but that logic is flawed, as the Dvorak Amendment would have only required testing of officials already in office, not candidates. Surprisingly, McMillin said he plans to introduce a new version of the bill….that requires lawmaker testing as well. “Give me the cup right now and I will be happy to take the test,” McMillin said. (EDIT: corrected spelling error)

01 Mar 2011 10:57

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Politics: Tom Coburn: Overlapping programs make legislators look stupid

  • It makes us all look like jackasses. Anybody that says that we don’t look like fools up here hasn’t read the report.
  • Sen. Tom Coburn • Expressing his frustration over the the Government Accountability Office’s report that suggests that there are large amounts of overlap in the federal government, and that by cutting them, we could save billions of dollars each year. Coburn, who pushed for the report as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, says that any changes to the budget should get rid of wasteful or duplicative programs. Coburn’s office counts 33 areas where programs overlap and hundreds of individual programs, by the way. source