AP Interview: MS Gov. Bryant supports drug testing for welfare recipients

Bryant: “If I was receiving any federal or state benefits to help raise my family, I’d be glad to take a drug test. I think that would be something that would be acceptable to me if I was receiving tax benefits. I work hard for my money. The federal government or the state government has a right, I think, to merely ask people who are receiving benefits through TANF to submit to a drug test so that we can identify if you’re abusing a substance and then how we go about treating you for that.”

He’s also standing firm on his decision to refuse the Medicaid expansion in the ACA:

AP: Your plan to expand community health centers could help provide more primary care coverage, but it wouldn’t cover hospitalization. Expanding Medicaid could help cover hospital expenses for some people who are currently uninsured.

Bryant: “For us to enter into an expansion program would be a fool’s errand. I mean, here we would be saying to 300,000 Mississippians, ‘We’re going to provide Medicaid coverage to you,’ and then the federal government through Congress or through the Senate, would do away with or alter the Affordable Care Act, and then we have no way to pay that. We have no way to continue the coverage.”

This state drives me mad sometimes.