Trump Pushes Senate, Fires Warning Shot at Welfare Leeches
One of the president’s important jobs is to use his influence to push lawmakers in a positive direction for the nation.
That can be difficult when Congress can’t seem to even agree about the color of the sky, but President Donald Trump is now trying to light a fire under senators for an important reason: Reducing welfare fraud.
On Thursday, Trump used one of his most famous communication tools — Twitter — to support work requirements for food stamps.
A provision to include those requirements for single food stamp recipients was part of a farm bill which recently passed in the House, but barely.
The measure squeaked by with a vote of 213-211. Every single Democrat voted against it.
Now, the House and Senate versions of the farm bill must be reconciled in conference, and there’s a very good chance that the work requirements for welfare will be removed from the final, joint version as a compromise.
Trump isn’t happy about that prospect.
When the House and Senate meet on the very important Farm Bill – we love our farmers – hopefully they will be able to leave the WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR FOOD STAMPS PROVISION that the House approved. Senate should go to 51 votes!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018
“When the House and Senate meet on the very important Farm Bill – we love our farmers – hopefully they will be able to leave the WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR FOOD STAMPS PROVISION that the House approved,” he posted on August 2.
“Senate should go to 51 votes!” he continued, signalling that he wants the work requirement provision passed.
Similar changes at the state level have had a dramatic impact on the use of welfare and saved taxpayers serious money.
In Alabama, for example, requiring food stamp recipients to meet some common-sense prerequisites had results so impressive that they’re impossible to ignore.
“13 counties in the southern state recently reinstated work requirements for their government food programs, and the results were staggering. Food stamp usage dropped by 85 percent,” The Western Journal reported in June 2017.
“Contrary to liberal fear mongering, the work requirement only applies to adults between the ages of 18 and 50 who do not have dependents, and are physically able to seek employment,” The Western Journal previously explained about Alabama’s measure.
Other states including Maine, Kansas and Indiana have had similar success in requiring able-bodied applicants to be working, in school, or actively trying to find work before receiving government benefits.
Those changes have turned out to be like salt on the heads of welfare leeches. There’s nothing wrong with a safety net; it’s a safety hammock that becomes a problem.
Considering how difficult it was to pass the House farm bill with the work requirement intact, Republicans will face an uphill battle in trying to keep it in the final law.
The fact that not a single Democrat was interested in decreasing welfare abuse is eye-opening, however … and it’s refreshing that the president is finally standing up for American values like hard work.
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