Posted on 07/12/2018 3:18:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A White House report said Thursday most Americans living in poverty who receive government benefits are not working, even though they are able to -- a published backing for the Trump administration's plan to impose new work requirements for welfare recipients.
The 66-page report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers said poverty numbers of non-disabled adults are "a deeply flawed reflection of material hardship."
The study said most non-disabled working-age adults who receive Medicaid, 61 percent, do not work or work very few hours.
The other two major welfare programs, Medicaid and food stamps, have similar numbers. The report said more than two-thirds of SNAP food stamp recipients and 59 percent who receive housing assistance are unemployed.
The report follows a district court ruling last month that blocked Kentucky's plan to require work and monthly premiums for some recipients to receive Medicaid.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said the Trump administration failed to consider whether changes in Kentucky laws could help the state furnish assistance. The judge said the federal decision to allow work requirements is "arbitrary and capricious."
Kentucky imposed the requirement in January and it would have taken effect last month if it hadn't been blocked in federal court. The law mandated 80 hours of work or other employment activity per month.
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to add and strengthen work requirements for public assistance and other welfare programs.
The order intends to "increase self-sufficiency, well-being, and economic mobility" by encouraging federal agencies to promote employment for individuals on public assistance who are able to work. The move also addresses concerns about wasteful spending, in that some recipients could be lackadaisical in finding work because they already receive a government funds.
Thursday's report said expanding work requirements would help with decades of declining self-sufficiency and improve outcomes for developing children.
"The timing is ideal for expanding work requirements among non-disabled working-age adults in social welfare programs," the report said. "As was the case in the period of welfare reform in the mid-1990s, current labor markets are extremely tight and unemployment rates are at very low levels, even for low-skilled workers."
"Quite the opposite of harming people, expanded work requirements can improve the lives of current welfare recipients and at the same time respect the importance and dignity of work."
Critics, though, argue adding a mandate to work for impoverished Americans defeats the purpose of government aid.
"The purpose of Medicaid is to provide medical insurance to people who cannot afford it, not to create barriers to coverage," Anne Marie Regan of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center said earlier this year. "Demonstration waivers are supposed to make access to healthcare easier. [The work requirement] does the opposite. It is not only in violation of Medicaid law but is immoral."
WHY would I want to work when I can get the gubermint to send me a check?
If I can add a few kids into the equation, that check can get pretty big. It is the reason I vote straight Democrat Ticket! /sarc
July 4, 2017 Wall Street Journal had article Get Able Bodied Americans Off the Couch by Peter Cove. Excellent reading.
We all know types including young males (under 35) who live with their mother in her basement and have a number one activity listed as “video games”. Maybe smoke weed but not checked off on the surveys.
Also neighborhood persons of color and aliens (Muslims as well as Latinos) who we can see on our day off from work, at malls, shopping centers, movies,miniature golf places and all the rest. When the next day dawns, we are back at work but they are still hanging out-—on our dime as taxpayers.
Who is the stupid one????
Watch Judge Judy. I swear half the People who show up there say they are on SS Disability but I never see a Wheelchair.
Of course one of the local Sponsors of Judge Judy is none other than Phil Latour, Disability Lawyer, who uses the tagline, and I’m also a Psychologist!
Everyone in the Ads are saying, Phil got me my Check, and not one of them is lying in a Hospital Bed.
Daytime TV, full of Disability Lawyers and Ambulance Chasing Lawyers. My favorite of course is Larry H. Parker, he’ll fight for you!
things like this make me thankful God knows all and in His timing takes up issues with each person.
I also think repeatedly using things like govt handouts and grants etc are some of the things that may carry weight in the end when we meet our Ultimate Judge.
Many welfare recipients are not stupid, so why hold a job if a family of 4 gets $60,000 worth of free stuff from the gov’t? That is how much one has to earn to match life style of a welfare family.
Sometimes I wonder if I am stupid for not seriously milking the system for all I can.
Welfare should only be given for six months twice during a lifetime. After that, they’re on their own.
By “welfare” I gather you mean TANF, formerly known as AFDC. Disability is a horse of a different color.
Or....they just aren’t admitting that they’re working....
Wheelchairs and hospital beds do
not a disabled person make.
the ones that can’t reasonably do productive work, fine... if no family friends church synagogue or charity help available... then let’s give them a decent welfare benefit...this should be done at local or state level, not feds. feds have no business giving out welfare money. we need to get fed welfare office shut down asap, imho.
In this country, the states are supposed to be the governments of general powers, the feds only are supposed to perform limited functions and welfare benefits are NOT included
Well, I would think at least ONE would be in one or the other.
Most of these so called disabled people have mental issues, either real, imagined or enhanced with the input of their Disability Lawyers.
Hooked on drugs, here’s your check. The lack of personal responsibility is staggering, especially by those who know how the Racket works.
As my Mother always said, you help people who can’t help themselves not people who won’t help themselves.
Her Sister, my Aunt was completely blind yet she worked for years sewing Garments in what people today would call a sweatshop.
Labor force participation is still at a historic low so the low unemployment rate masks a big problem with people simply not wanting to work. Trump really needs to cut back on SSI disability, food stamps, federal welfare grants and other federal benefit programs to get the able-bodied back to work.
They’re JUST figuring this out?
It’s been going on for decades.
Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.
Going to trade school or a two year community college should be mandatory for everyone who is on welfare who is not disabled to the point of physically not being able to work.
I’ve only heard of ONE case in my entire life of a situation where I thought welfare was justified.
It was a situation where a man, a father of four young girls who was their father and married to their mother, had a degenerative muscle wasting disease and he was slowly dying from it.
He was in a wheelchair at the time I heard about it.
She grew her own garden and canned and did what she could to make ends meet on that limited income.
In 40 years, that was the ONLY situation I ever heard of that I thought public assistance was justified.
Why should they when we pay tehm so well to do nothing?
understood.
some folks with disabilities can do some productive work, for sure
some can do less, or none. obviously we can ask people to do what they reasonably can first and then help them with any needs they cannot supply for themselves
i personally favor more generous help for those with real genuine serious disabilities. the $ can be redirected from the ripoff artists that don’t have to be on the dole!
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