Should James Cameron, acclaimed director of hit movies such The Terminator and Titanic, have to pass a drug test if he recieves government subsidies to film movies in Michigan? A bipartisan group of lawmakers have suggested that maybe he should.
Michigan legislators have proposed requiring drug tests for the executives of companies that receive “corporate welfare” — government loans, grants, and tax credits — that they say should be mandated if the state passes legislation requiring traditional welfare recipients to take drug tests.
“I don’t know if it will go anywhere,” state Rep. Tom McMillin, the Republican who proposed the bill, told the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “I honestly believe this will be in the mix if we go in the direction of testing Medicaid recipients.”
The idea of drug testing welfare recipients cropped up in the Republican presidential primary — Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry supported the proposal — and some state legislatures have considered the bill. Liberals decry such testing. “This legislation assumes suspicion on this group of people. It assumes that they’re drug abusers,” Democratic state Rep. Patrick Goggles of Wyoming argued when his state legislature debated the idea last month.
McMillin, along with three Republican and one Democratic co-sponsors, also opposes drug testing welfare recipients. “I think it is an intrusion by the government,” McMillin explained. “But if we are going to do one (Medicaid), we should do the other (corporate). It’s handouts from the government. I think we ought to treat everyone the same if we start handing out money.”
He made clear to the Mackinac Center that the law would not make exceptions for celebrities. “It potentially could be James Cameron,” the local lawmaker said. “I would say, potentially, yes, if they want our money.”
