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Here’s one item that Dems reportedly won’t budge on as Congress tries to come to debt agreement

May 27, 2023 | | Print Article

Debt ceiling negotiations remain stalled because, surprise, surprise, Democrats refuse to concede to the GOP’s simple, widely supported demand that able-bodied welfare recipients be required to work.

“Democrats appear unwilling to budge on stricter work requirements for government aid. Fox is told such a provision could ‘collapse the Democratic vote’ for this plan,” Fox News’ Chad Pergram confirmed early Saturday morning via Twitter.

Look:

Proposed earlier this year, the provision would do nothing more than ensure that able-bodied Americans can’t exploit and cheat the system.

“Legislation passed by the House in April would impose new or expanded work requirements for three federal programs — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food aid formerly known as food stamps; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which offers aid to low-income families with children; and Medicaid assistance for adults without dependents,” the Associated Press notes.

“House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is insisting that the proposed work requirements be part of negotiations with Biden over raising the debt limit and avoiding a national default. While Biden has signaled that making any changes to benefits for Medicaid is a non-starter, he has been less clear when asked about House GOP proposals to strengthen work requirements for SNAP and TANF,” the AP reporter earlier this month.

As the months have passed, President Joe Biden has inched closer to bending the knee and agreeing to at least some work requirements. Which is only fitting, because he used to loudly support work requirements for welfare.

“Biden was one of 78 senators from both parties who voted for the 1996 welfare reform package that then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signed into law,” according to CNN.

“The law eliminated the nation’s main welfare program and replaced it with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as TANF, which requires states to ensure that a certain share of those receiving cash aid participate in work-related activities,” CNN notes.

But the closer the president’s gotten to reaching a deal with Republicans, the angrier his fellow Democrats have become.

“We did not elect Joe Biden of 1986. We elected Joe Biden of 2020,” far-left Rep. Pramila Jayapal recently told Politico.

“It’s profoundly destructive and it also threatens to weaken the president,” far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likewise told Axios, stressing that bending the knee to Republicans would drastically weaken the president.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reportedly recently said that “work requirements are a nonstarter.”

So there you have it. Democrats don’t want welfare recipients to be forced to work. The problem for them is that the vast majority of Americans disagree with them.

“Nearly two-thirds of Americans — including half of Democrats — back work requirements for Medicaid and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, as House Republicans want in a debt limit deal,” according to a recent Axios-Ipsos poll.

A recent YouGov poll produced similar results: “Two-thirds of Americans (68%) say that people who receive assistance from welfare programs in the U.S. should be required to work or participate in job training programs if they are able to. Republicans (83%) are more likely than Democrats (64%) and Independents (61%) to say work participation should be required.”

Given these damning results, why do Democrats insist on blocking work requirements for welfare? Critics have their guesses.

“The Democrat Party is opposed to work,” one critic pithily tweeted.

“Democrats don’t want requirements—they want able-bodied adults to stay home,” another critic, Sen. Ted Cruz, added.

“More welfare = more Democrats,” a third critic tweeted, linking to the follow chart:

Look at some additional criticism below:

Vivek Saxena
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