WHEN DOES THE SOCIAL SAFETY NET BECOME A HAMMOCK?

 

When the war on poverty began in 1965 President Johnson laid out the goal of the program to be the “elimination of the cycle of dependence” and its perpetuation of a permanent poverty class of Americans. The slogan of the program was “a hand up not a handout”. The 77 welfare programs have morphed from such noble beginnings to the leviathan it is today consuming over a trillion dollars annually and doing so at an accelerating pace.

Mean-tested welfare is the fastest growing component of the federal budget. Note that means-tested excludes Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment Insurance. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is second fastest growing part of the means-tested welfare. The idea of means-testing a person prior to granting benefits is meant to prohibit fraudulent claims and to withdraw benefits once a person is again able to take care of themselves. This notion of means-testing is why most states administer their food stamp (SNAP) programs in the same departments that administer the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. For purposes of our discussion I would like to call particular attention to the word temporary in the acronym. These programs are intended to help individuals and families temporarily and then sunset the benefits once they get back on their feet. The problem with the whole concept is that virtually no ongoing means-testing occurs and that Welfare benefits including (SNAP) now exceed minimum wages for a full time job in 33 states. 13 states already pay benefits in excess of the proposed new minimum wage of $15/hour. The pre-tax welfare “salary” in some states exceeds $60,000/year. In 2000 the Clinton administration changed the eligibility rules to include “broad based categorical eligibility”. To understand the shift you must first understand that most people can qualify in one way or another under categorical eligibility rules for non-cash aid. The new broad based categorical eligibility allowed states to grant cash benefits like food stamps to anyone that qualified for non-cash benefits. This almost complete lack of real mean-testing initially and no follow-up means-testing combine to grow the program and eliminates any sun-setting of benefits.

Cash and non-cash benefits from the 77 welfare programs are now so lucrative that they provide a significant disincentive to working for a living. The program’s goal that SNAP is to be a program of temporary aid is defeated by the failure of the regulatory agencies to run it as a work activated program. Non-elderly, able-bodied adults that receive benefits should be required to work, be looking for work or be learning work skills. According to a 2010 study by the Heritage Foundation 18.8 million households or roughly 1/5 of U.S. households received food stamp benefits. 10.5 million households that received benefits contained at least one non-elderly able-bodied adult. In 5.5 million of these households with non-elderly able-bodied adults the adults performed zero work.

The average length of time that a person receives temporary benefits is now almost nine years. The number, bad as it is, does not indicate the real depth of the problem. Children who grow up and apply for their own benefits stop appearing as a long term receiver of benefits and look to the system as a new entrant. Sadly living off of welfare benefits has become a generational way of life for many people. The fear of many of the programs proponents is that any attempt at reforms like sun-setting of benefits or work activation will only hurt the real needy families and miss the fraudulent beneficiaries.

There are about 4 million native born children of illegal aliens living in the U.S. These children are eligible and when their parents apply for aid under the SNAP program the benefits are granted without any repercussions to the illegal alien parents. Unless the proof is required by administrators that the parents are living in this country legally the EBT cards should be denied. The program has built in a huge incentive for expectant mothers to illegally enter the country to obtain welfare benefits.

Reforms passed in such a way that the country still provides a safety net for the needy must be enacted to unburden the economy from the downward drag of the hammock dwellers living off of the largess of the U.S. taxpayer.