Over the years, it’s become obvious that America’s welfare system is broken. The system has swollen into a web of over 100 different programs, which has cost U.S. taxpayers over $22 trillion since President Johnson declared the War on Poverty 50 years ago. What do we have to show for the $22 trillion we’ve spent? In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the poverty rate at 14.5 percent. Remarkably, that’s nearly the same poverty rate as in 1967, three years after the War on Poverty started. Do you know what this means? The federal government spends close to $10,000 per welfare recipient and has basically no effect on poverty.
It may be difficult for many well-intentioned, but misguided, liberals to admit, but the country’s welfare programs are trapping many Americans in a vicious cycle of government dependency, instead of giving them a hand up out of poverty. Let’s distinguish between welfare programs and other programs like Social Security and Medicare. These are programs workers supported their entire working lives before turning to them when they can no longer work in retirement. This is a far cry from other programs that hand out benefits with little or no responsibility from the person receiving the benefits and this lack of responsibility has consequences. Some young people choose not to join the military, which is a traditional path out of poverty for many because it’s easier to rely on food stamps and other welfare programs. Many welfare programs also discourage marriage. For example, in a means-tested program like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a single parent raising a child may receive a bigger check if he or she refrains from marrying. Yet, marriage is one of the best anti-poverty tools. In married households, only one out of every 10 children grows up in poverty, while almost half do in single-parent households.
The best anti-poverty tool, though, and the quickest and most effective path out of poverty is work. Fewer than 3 percent of Americans who work full time live in poverty, compared to 23.6 percent of those without jobs. In Missouri, finding a job was the reason a household left the welfare rolls in more than four out of five cases. Employment and the empowerment and self-respect that comes with it will lead to greater success in overcoming poverty than any program or handout the government can provide. We must recognize that people are not happier when they are getting a handout, but many want the opportunity to earn their own success. The growth of the welfare state has hurt the drive and initiative of many Americans and Missourians and is further eroding our traditional values of hard work and personal responsibility in achieving the American dream.
If work is the answer, our welfare programs should emphasize work as a requisite for receiving benefits when and where it is appropriate. To this end, I have filed Senate Bill 561, which would strengthen our work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or what is more commonly known as food stamps. Food stamps started out a small program in 1964 with an initial cost of $30.5 million and about 425,000 recipients. It has since grown to 46.5 million Americans with a cost in excess of $73 billion. One in every seven Americans is on food stamps. The program has grown to become what President Reagan called, ”a generalized income-transfer program” unrelated to nutritional need. The goal of food stamps should be to help those who cannot work, like those disabled and our seniors. The program was not created to provide a living for those who can work and provide for themselves.
Right now, Missouri imposes the absolute minimum work requirement on able-bodied food stamp recipients, which is a one-month loss of benefits for the first time a recipient isn’t working, three months for the second time and six months for the third. The Missouri Department of Social Services estimates that only about 30 percent of the eligible population is meeting the work requirement, which is only 30 hours of work per week, or one can even participate in a training or workfare program. We can do better, and that is what my SB 561 would do. It would raise the periods a food stamp recipient would lose benefits for not working to three months for the first instance, six months for the second and permanently for the third occurrence. This would put Missouri on the high end of the federal regulatory limit and in-line with a number of other states far less conservative than Missouri, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.
The ticket out of poverty is work, and that is what this bill is all about. As Americans and Missourians, we believe our public assistance programs should be a hand up and not a hand out. Let’s bring that closer to reality with policies that recognize the importance of work and the dignity and success employment brings.
Additionally, I always welcome your ideas, questions and concerns. You may contact me at the State Capitol as follows: (573) 751-1480, david.sater@senate.mo.gov or by writing to Sen. David Sater, Missouri State Capitol, Room 416, Jefferson City, MO 65101.
God bless and thank you for the opportunity to work for you in the Missouri Senate.