Maine Governor: No More Welfare for Those With Drug Felonies

[TexasTowelie]

AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine's Republican governor wants to abandon drug testing for some welfare recipients.

Instead, Gov. Paul LePage simply wants to make people convicted of a felony drug offense after 1996 ineligible to receive cash assistance and food stamps.

The idea is within the governor's 230-page budget proposal, and comes as Maine legalizes recreational marijuana. The governor's proposal is getting pushback from advocates for low-income individuals, who say it's erroneous to assume everyone with a felony conviction is a serious drug offender.

More states are opting out of federal law prohibiting welfare for such individuals. The Congressional Research Service found three states have a lifetime ban on both cash benefits and food stamps.

Read more: http://mainepublic.org/post/maine-governor-no-more-welfare-those-drug-felonies

[JDC]

1. POS

[TexasTowelie]

2. They essentially lose their ability to find a job anywhere with a felony on their record,

then they are excluded from living in public housing or receiving any benefits for food, so what happens? They return back to a life of crime. While felons shouldn't hold certain occupations related to the criminal offense (e.g., they shouldn't hold a fiduciary job if they stole or embezzled, they shouldn't be around children if they committed a sex crime), once they paid their debt to society they shouldn't have to continue paying forever.

[JDC]

3. LePage is a heartless thug.

I'm in Maine all the time. It is a mixed bag up there. I can't imagine LePage being around forever. People get tired of dealing with his nonsense. The problem is that there are plenty of Rs with dough in ME.

[Mika]

4. The Wall Street corporate prison system needs customers for profit. Their stocks will go up.

Profits will be taken. Its the America way.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. We need to re-fill our for-profit prisons with someone...

We might as well re-fill our for-profit prisons with ex-cons and ex-felons who were forced back into a life of crime rather than starve to death!