As part of their debt ceiling demands, Republicans are demanding expanded work requirements for food stamps and Medicaid.
On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, GOP House Speaker McCarthy seemed to enlarge that to all safety net programs (read story here). It looks reasonable on its face. But as with many things in politics, it’s not what it seems (see article here).
Most people on those programs able to work are already working, and the GOP’s new work requirements would just throw up red tape barriers that would push eligible recipients off the rolls, which is the apparent intent as Republicans have made clear all along their goal is to cut spending on those programs.
A large percentage of Medicaid enrollees and food stamp recipients — over 40% — are the working poor. These are people with jobs that don’t pay enough to live on. The best way to save taxpayers money for these programs is not by requiring people to work who are already working, but by raising the minimum wage. (I’ll come back to this below.)
Most of the rest are elderly, disabled, children, unemployed, or people with barriers to employment such as lack of child care. For these reasons, the proposed work requirements would do nothing to bring more people into the workforce, as past studies of work requirements have shown.
Now about the minimum wage. Labor is a cost of doing business, and workers need the necessities of life in order to furnish their labor. When wages are less than necessities, and social programs make up the difference, taxpayers are effectively subsidizing the business owner who pays low wages. Thus, a large chunk of government spending on these programs function as business subsidies.
It logically follows that an adequate minimum wage is really a taxpayer protection law, by requiring employers to pay their full cost of labor, instead of shifting some of that cost to government programs. But Republicans fight any attempt to raise the minimum wage, which at the federal level has been $7.25/hr. for decades.
Nobody can live on that, and the result is that businesses — many owned by Republicans — get a huge taxpayer subsidy from programs that help low-wage workers with housing, food, and medical care.
Not too surprisingly, Republicans want to take those subsidies away, too. If they succeed, many low-wage workers will have to drop out of the workforce. How can anyone work without shelter, food, transportation, and medical care? It will do the exact opposite of getting more people to work.
As this points out, Republican policies are driven by ideology, not practical reality. Upon close examination, you see over and over again a lack of logic to their proposals. Gutting these programs, or throwing up more obstacles to eligibility, will only increase poverty, misery, and social tensions.
Yes, you’ll say, but what about ballooning deficits? Don’t we have to do something about spending?
First of all, Republicans spend just as much as Democrats (see chart here); they simply spend it on different stuff, so the political battles are really over spending priorities, not how much is spent. Second, deficits are already trending down (see charts here and here, scroll down for the latter). Third, don’t ignore the revenue side; GOP tax cuts for the rich contribute trillions to deficits. They claim tax cuts increase federal revenues (so-called “supply side” economics), but that’s demonstrably false; the Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts resulted in lower revenues.
See the Republican demands for what they are: Partisan proposals that serve their self-interest, not the goals described to justify them. Before you argue the same is true of Democratic policies, food stamps really do go to people who need them (a large percentage of food stamp beneficiaries are children); and Medicaid, by contributing to a healthier population, really does reduce misery and also expands the workforce by enabling more people to work. And raising the minimum wage reduces the need for these programs without shrinking the economy, as many studies have shown.
Democrats can justify social spending by pointing to independent and impartial studies, whereas Republicans are blowing hot air. What’s more, there’s no compelling economic imperative for the drastic spending cuts Republicans are demanding. Democratic leaders should not give in. Not only would that break faith with voters, it’s not good for America. Both parties should pursue efficiencies and cost savings that don’t undermine vital programs, and work together on this, but one side’s bad-faith proposals and threats to crash the economy are not how you go about it.