One Democratic congresswoman is “sick and tired, and sick and tired of being sick and tired, of the criminalization of poverty,” so much so that she is proposing the wealthiest Americans get drug tested.
Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., spoke to the Guardian Wednesday about her new legislation that would test the 1 percent asking for federal tax deductions the same way low-income residents seeking welfare assistance can be drug tested by states.
“We’re not going to get rid of the federal deficit by cutting poor people off SNAP,” Moore said, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. “But if we are going to drug-test people to reduce the deficit, let’s start on the other end of the income spectrum.”
The legislation by Moore, dubbed the Top 1% Accountability Act, would force taxpayers with itemized deductions of more than $150,000 to submit to the IRS a drug test from a sample more than three months old. Or, they could accept the lower standard deduction when filing their tax returns instead.
According to Moore, she was inspired by House Speaker and fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan.
“When he stood in front of a drug treatment center and rolled out his anti-poverty initiative, pushing this narrative that poor people are drug addicts, that was the last straw,” she said, referring to a speech that Ryan made last week in which he announced “a new approach to fighting poverty.”
“The benefits we give to poor people are so limited compared to what we give to the top 1 percent,” Moore added in calling for a change. “It’s a drop in the bucket.”
Moore’s governor, Scott Walker, has already put in place legislation that mandates applications for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — otherwise known as welfare — to answer questions about their potential drug use and submit to testing if their answers show suspicion of drug use.
Walker is also suing the federal government for the right to drug test Wisconsin residents applying for SNAP benefits.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 15 states have passed some sort of legislation regarding drug testing or screening for applicants or recipients of welfare: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
