DeFede: Rick Scott's Drug Testing Code

MIAMI- (CBS4) - In both television commercials and on his website, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott touts his plan to require drug tests for anyone receiving government assistance.

"I think it is the right thing to do," Scott said during a recent debate. Scott proposes drug testing as a way to save the state millions of dollars.

"On top of the fact that we will save money," Scott explained, "you have to think about the children in those families." Other than saying the children will be "taken care of," he didn't offer any specifics.

It was one of the few times during the debate where Scott didn't even come close to using his allotted time to address a question. There is a reason for that: This isn't a plan, it's a sound bite.

On Tuesday, during Bishop Victor Curry's radio program on WMBM 1490-AM, I had a chance to discuss Scott's plan with Scott's running mate, Jennifer Carroll.

I asked Carroll, who was born in Trinidad and is black, if Scott's idea of drug testing welfare recipients was really a not-so-subtle racial message to white voters that as governor he would crack down on lazy minorities.

"No," Carroll said, "absolutely not because drug use knows no race or ethnicity."

Carroll repeated Scott's claim that ultimately his plan was intended to help the children.

"We need to help those families and give those individuals the assistance and guidance that they need to get out of that drug use so the dollars are truly going to help the children," she said.

But nowhere in Rick Scott's plan does it mention providing "assistance and guidance" for those who test positive.

Instead, it proclaims that one of the ways he will reduce government spending is to curtail welfare benefits. "Imposing more stringent standards on non-compliance with work requirements and require drug screening for recipients, Florida could save $77 million," the website projects.

So let's be clear. This program isn't about helping families. It's about catching someone using drugs so they don't have to provide them government assistance in the future. While that may sound good to some, the unintended consequences of such a plan would be sizeable.

When I pointed this out to Carroll she again claimed the state would step in and provide help to those families whose members use drugs.

"We can not do one without the other," she said.

Carroll correctly noted that if you simply cut families off of assistance it will only increase the likelihood someone in that family will turn to crime as a way of staying afloat. Crime rates will rise as will the number of people being incarcerated by the state. And once again, while that may sound like a good thing to some people, it costs a heck of a lot more to send a person to prison than it does to provide them assistance.

But the program offered by Scott doesn't call for increased spending on drug counseling or rehabilitation centers. The plan is designed to cut government spending in the short term – that's it. (Of course, the ultimate motivation behind the proposal is to help Scott get elected by making him appear to be a tough guy.)

And anyone who thinks its use in Scott's TV commercials isn't designed as racial code is naïve.

I asked Carroll if she was so concerned about taxpayer money being used to support drug habits, would Scott consider having the state require drug tests for private company officials who want to bid on state contracts.

Should the CEOs of companies who want to do business with the state have to pee in a cup as well?

Carroll wandered away from the question, saying how many companies have their own drug testing policy. But when she was pressed for an answer, she finally said: "Well that's something we could look at. If the community wants that, if they want to take it further, we could look at it."

During the radio discussion with Carroll, Congressman Kendrick Meek, the Democratic Senate candidate, was on hold listening to the program. After Carroll hung up and Meek was introduced, he immediately jumped into the drug testing issue.

"I guarantee you 110 percent that that is not in Rick Scott's plan to even look at [drug testing] business people who receive millions and millions of state dollars that are taxpayer dollars," he said. "If they are going to drug test recipients that are receiving public assistance then every member of the Legislature and also Florida Cabinet should be drug tested."

For her part, Scott's opponent in the governor's race, Democrat Alex Sink, called into Bishop Curry's radio program and said she would support drug testing if it was cost efficient. It seemed her answer was designed to prevent Scott from accusing her of being soft on drug users.

She admitted this was not an issue she would have ever raised on her own. "It's just not an idea I would have brought up in this campaign," she said.

I asked Sink why she thought Scott was making this an issue in the campaign.

"Maybe he is doing polling or something," she said. "This is just a pattern he has had ever since he got in the race seven months ago. He throws out a lot of random concepts and random ideas. I don't know where they come from."