Rep Grigsby on JFC Unemployment Motion

Wisconsin State Representative Tamara Grigsby speaks during a May 26, 2011 meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance. She is responding to a motion unexpectedly added to the agenda which will cut the first week of unemployment benefits and bar recipients from collecting benefits for a year after any positive drug test.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also say that this is a very, very callous motion. You know, I don't understand why we are so... I mean, we just keep beating people when they're down. I mean, we just keep beating them and stomping them until they're no more. Where is the compassion for humanity in this room? I mean, we just won't stop. We seek out everyone we can find and then we beat them down until they can't be beaten anymore. And we're doing this now like every day. I mean, every day we find somebody to do this to.

I mean, these are real people. I mean, I was just sitting here as people were talking thinking, listing names of people who I know who are unemployed and who receive unemployment. And there aren't people who--you know--just didn't feel like pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Or people who wanted to sit around all day and watch TV and collect a check. These are people who were former engineers. One of my friends is a former engineer and is having a very difficult time finding work. I have another friend who was a program manager at a very large youth agency and had a hard time finding work. I have a neighbor with a PhD who was laid off because of the recession and having a hard time finding work. These aren't people who are sitting around, are in the normal group of people that you like to say you kick all the time. These are working people, who caught a hard time, caught a bad break.

And while it might not be your world that this little meager amount of money from unemployment helps much, but this is all they depend on. And one week's worth of lost income, of not receiving an income, is devastating. Is devastating. I mean, your administration has already ended unemployment insurance extensions earlier this spring. And then at that time the [Department of Workforce Development] Secretary Perez said that he was ending the extensions because there were 20,000 jobs out there and unemployment insurance just simply kept people from going out to go get those jobs. If that isn't the most disgusting, cold thing that I've ever heard... People want to work, people want to go and be productive. People want to have family-sustaining jobs. These people are not staying home because they have nothing else to do.

One week is an eternity when you don't have food to put on the table, or clothes to put on your kid's back, or be able to pay for even your child to get a winter coat when that first snow comes. A week is an eternity when you have to pay for childcare, when you have to... a week is an eternity. And just to say: "Oh you got to wait, just because we said so" is callous and it's cold. It's consistent, though, with what we've been doing this entire sesssion to people. People who need...

I mean, does anybody get the concept of a safety net? A safety net, that's what we as a society are supposed to offer our citizens. We're supposed to offer a place where the most downtrodden can land. Can land until they can get themselves back to where they need to be. Any humane society provides some type of safety net for the most vulnerable, for the most downtrodden. And we are just every day taking away, snipping away at that safety net. There hardly is anything called a safety net here anymore. If you look at our W2 program, you look at how difficult it is to be eligible for benefits under that program. And you look at the fact that we cut that by eighty percent upon its inception, and the numbers now nowhere near compare to the need. If you look at our food stamp utilization, you look at the numbers: nowhere near the need. So the safety net in this state is becoming nonexistent.

And then, just to mention, as far as the drug test part goes. You know, it's all about punish, punish, punish all the time. And we have no compassion for people. Now, I certainly could understand an employer being concerned about someone having tested positive for an illegal substance. However, to punish that individual for an entire year because they needed... what they really need was some kind of help, some kind of treatment. But to say they will no longer be eligible for an entire year? I mean, I bet there's some people in this room who can think back to their college days, and certainly wouldn't have wanted this law to be in place at that time if they were receiving unemployment. An entire year? Really? I mean, how about requiring them to go get some help, or get treatment, or get something? Or just maybe, you know... I don't know what the answer is, but an entire year, that's outrageous.

Like I said, you've already ended the unemployment insurance extensions. You've already whittled away at W2 benefits, at all types of different programs that help the most vulnerable. Yesterday we went back to family care and slashed that. I guess it's... I guess your response is going to be, somebody's going to respond and say: "well all this does is make sure we aren't letting drug abusers... we aren't using taxpayer dollars to support people who are taking drugs." I guess I would tell you to expect a motion maybe for CEOs applying for grants or benefits for economic development, maybe they should take a drug test too. Maybe those who folks who we're giving tax credits out to. That's, you know, state money. They're just as likely be taking illegal drugs too. So maybe we should just drug test everybody. But no, we just go and find the most downtrodden. We just go find those who are in the most need, and we just kick them more and more and more. Just kicking them when they're down, every day, that's all we do in that building.

And then, do you really go home and feel good about that? I go home every day and feel sick to my stomach after leaving this room, when you look what we do to people. I literally feel sick. And so it's hard for me to understand how you go home and feel well, feel good about doing this to people at a time, at a time when people need help the most. It's just wrong, and I'm just dissapointed that this is even before us.

Video thanks to @nicknicemadison