Work requirement for welfare eminently reasonable

The (barely) Republican-controlled House passed Speaker McCarthy’s deficit reduction plan. Among the provisions it contains is a provision that limits childless, able-bodied adults ages 18 to 55 to receiving food stamps for only three months out of every three years unless they are employed at least 20 hours a week. The plan would also require certain adult Medicaid recipients to work, perform community service or participate in an employment program for at least 80 hours a month or earn a certain minimum monthly income.

New Mexico struggles more than nearly any other state when it comes to workforce participation. It is our strong belief that a lack of gainful work and productive activity among able-bodied adults leads to a lack of personal fulfillment and is one of the core reasons for our State’s elevated rate of social ills.

Bipartisan welfare reform worked in the 1990s to help reduce poverty. Sadly we have abandoned those basic principles. Sadly, New Mexico’s entire Democrat Congressional delegation opposes these basic requirements.

Once upon a time even Joe Biden supported work requirements for welfare.

In 1996, then-Senator Joe Biden spoke of the importance of work requirements for welfare recipients, stressing the need to “put them to work and make them want to go to work.”

What changed? pic.twitter.com/mEbK3PQUTJ

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 30, 2023