Do Republican ‘work requirements’ initiatives end up saving any money? Not really. States end up spending tens of millions of dollars enacting work requirements, such as Arkansas’s program that cost $26 million. Iowa’s bill requiring SNAP beneficiaries to work was estimated by the state’s nonpartisan service agency to cost $17 million over a three-year period, which is more than the state would have spent on SNAP during that time. Additionally, reducing benefits negatively impacts the larger economy, because people can only spend money on what they have.
For GOP supporters of work requirements, the wellbeing of the overall economy is less important than the “moral economy” which is a conservative vision that determines the proper distribution of rights and privileges in society. Assistance programs pose a fundamental problem for such supporters because they permit people to live without necessarily needing to work.
“In this family, we may have a child that is able-bodied, not married, no kids, but he’s sitting on the couch collecting welfare,” said Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, in a Fox News interview where he underscored the new work requirements he secured with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling. “We’re going to put work requirements on that individual, so he’s going to get a job.”
While McCarthy’s comment was obviously misspoken (since he was likely referring to an adult), the significance of his image of a welfare recipient and the role of government cannot be ignored. In McCarthy’s imagination, a nonworker is only a lazy individual who would want to work, but is too comfortable receiving benefits. Therefore, if the government has any role to fulfill, it is to force nonworkers into precarious employment, even though the outcome could be low wages and sporadic employment. It disregards the fact that many Americans cannot work due to health issues or familial obligations. What matters is that the government doesn’t incentivize anyone to avoid wage labor. Although this could lead to greater poverty and deprivation, it is less important than the preservation of a moral order in which people have to earn their survival and comfort in the market, and those who cannot sink.
