House Republicans are still trying to figure out their demands in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling and, as a result, not tanking the global economy. One of the few ideas that they’ve begun to consolidate around is also one of the most nonsensical in today’s job market: work requirements for receiving government assistance.
Specifically, Republicans are looking to raise the bar for millions of Americans who currently are enrolled in Medicare or food stamps programs. The claim is that doing so would push people currently receiving benefits to find employment or work longer hours and have the added effect of bringing down the federal deficit. It’s a nice theory, but one that blithely ignores how much the harm it will unleash outweighs any potential benefit.
It’s also a scheme that’s been tried before when it comes to Medicaid, which provides health insurance to mostly low-income Americans. Under the Trump administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services encouraged states to boot from the program enrollees who weren’t actively seeking jobs. After a number of court challenges, the only state that actually managed to set up such a system was Arkansas, where 18,000 people lost their coverage over the course of seven months.
It’s a nice theory, but one that blithely ignores how much the harm it will unleash outweighs any potential benefit.
But the policy didn’t punish Arkansans that conservatives would characterize as slackers on the government dole. Most of those who were kicked off were eligible for an exemption and didn’t fill out the proper paperwork, or they were working but failed to notify the state of the hours they’d clocked. And here’s the really damning thing: A 2019 study found that there was no marked increase in employment because of the policy. That means Arkansas’ adoption of work requirements hurt people by making them jump through hoops to prove their need, but it didn’t even have the promised effect of boosting…
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