Penna Dexter

With unemployment at a low 4.1 percent, businesses are complaining that they can’t find enough workers. The WALL STREET JOURNAL says the shortage is due, in part, to “government benefits that corrode a culture of work.”

Consider SNAP, the nation’s food stamp program.

More than 40 million Americans are in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That’s up from 17 million in 2000. Since then, the size of benefits and total cost of the program have exploded.

Between 2000 and 2008, food stamp spending doubled. Due to the 2008 recession, the Obama Administration allowed states to waive the work requirements that existed for SNAP participants. More than after previous recessions, food stamp recipients have stayed in the program. And SNAP spending has now nearly doubled again.

SNAP benefits should be reserved for poor people. But the program has long operated under a policy of “broad-based categorical eligibility.” In 30 states, that means a low-income person with plenty of net worth is still eligible. A person who draws on or even receives information about government assistance can get food stamps.

The farm bill introduced in the House of Representatives features a requirement that able-bodied Americans, ages 18 through 59 and receiving food stamps, work at least 20 hours per week. There are exemptions for the disabled and anyone who is pregnant or caring for a child under 6. About a third of current participants will be subject to the new rules. This should save taxpayers around $90 billion over the next ten years.

According to the JOURNAL, “Those who stop receiving benefits because of a work requirement will fall into two categories: Either they refused to work or train for work; or they found a job.”

Polls show that nearly 90 percent of the public agrees that able-bodied adults should be required to work or prepare for work as a requirement for receiving assistance.

Our system should reflect such wisdom.