Trump’s excellent welfare-reform opportunity
If you’re able to work, then you should — at least if you want food stamps.
That’s what more than 80 percent of voters think, a new poll for the Foundation for Government Accountability finds. And it’s actually already the law.
That’s right: Officially, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program requires able-bodied adults without dependents to work, train or volunteer — at least part-time. That SNAP requirement was part of the 1996 welfare-reform package that President Bill Clinton worked out with a Republican Congress.
But it was undermined from the start, since it allowed the secretary of agriculture to waive work requirements in times of need. Yet while it might make sense to give waivers in areas with high unemployment, the Clinton-era bureaucrats who wrote the enabling regulations ensured that waivers would be ridiculously easy to get.
New York’s latest request cites unemployment data from several years ago to justify its waiver. Just about every state plays some game.
But President Trump can have his Agriculture Department get going to write much tougher regulations, with no need to go to Congress. It’s something the public will clearly support — as it has backed sensible welfare reform for decades.
And SNAP — now delivered via Electronic Benefit Cards rather than the old food-stamp coupons — has become a huge welfare program, booming under the last two presidents.
Indeed, enrollment has soared to over 42 million, 13 percent of the US population. And roughly half are able-bodied adults, who account for $34 billion of the program’s benefits.
That’s nuts.
If ever there was a time to push these folks back into the workforce, it’s now: The economy is booming and employers are looking to hire, with 6 million jobs open across the country and unemployment at just 4.1 percent.
Requiring the able-bodied to do some kind of work in exchange for federal aid doesn’t impose a hardship; it pushes them onto a path toward self-sufficiency.
The 1996 reforms for regular welfare proved that. Though liberals warned the new rules would lead to mass suffering, the reverse was true: Just from 1996 to 2000, 2.4 million of Americans formerly trapped in dependency went out and found jobs.
Team Trump is already offering states the chance to impose work requirements on those enrolled in Medicaid. Taking a similar step on food stamps should be a no-brainer.