Official Washington just completed a heated debate on the debt limit, punctuated by intense partisan differences over strengthening work requirements for key welfare programs. On one side stood House Republicans, who on April 26 approved legislation that would have strengthened work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (dubbed “ABAWDs”) collecting major welfare benefits like food stamps and Medicaid. On the other side were liberal Democrats, who derided those proposed changes as an attack on poor Americans. A House floor statement by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) was typical: “This bill could cause millions of low-income seniors and veterans to lose access to nutrition assistance, and up to 10 million people could lose Medicaid coverage.” Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) called the legislation “anti-American because all that it does is cut, cut, cut.”
The final debt limit agreement President Joe Biden signed into law (and which Rep. Davis but not Rep. Bonamici ultimately supported) dropped many of the work requirement proposals Republicans crafted to promote work over benefit receipt. But since some of the proposals may be revived, including as Congress considers reforms to the food stamp program in this year’s Farm Bill, lawmakers should recognize that the debt limit negotiations lacked important context. While the debate often focused on comparatively modest reductions in benefit receipt, it totally ignored significant and ongoing real increases in welfare benefit collection. Those real increases far exceed projected benefit reductions resulting from work requirement proposals, both now and in the years ahead.
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