The government’s web of social-assistance programs should be converted into a block grant run by states, said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in proposing broad welfare reform: “I will eliminate failing, ineffective programs including the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps), housing assistance programs and the nation’s cash welfare program (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF).” Bush said the programs would be replaced by grants that “allow states to meet the needs of poor families, in the way that makes most sense in each state.”
“Full-time employment is key to permanently exiting poverty. That is why Right to Rise Grants will include real work requirements and time limits for able-boded adults,” said Bush. He unveiled his welfare plan, which included a larger Earned Income Tax Credit, ahead of an anti-poverty forum over the weekend in South Carolina. The two front-runners for the Republican nomination for president, businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, did not attend the forum. Polls put Bush’s support at 5 percent in Iowa and 12 percent in New Hampshire. “[House Speaker Paul] Ryan and congressional Republicans have pushed for reduced funding or the elimination of certain federal welfare programs like SNAP for the last several years, with mixed success,” said the Washington Post.
Food stamps are the major U.S. anti-hunger program, with enrollment of 45.4 million people at latest count and an average benefit of $126.39 per month. Enrollment peaked at 47.8 million in December 2012. Participation — and costs — surged in the wake of the 2008-09 recession. Republican conservatives unsuccessfully proposed tighter eligibility rules during debate on the 2014 farm law. Costs peaked at $80 billion in fiscal 2013, as lawmakers debated the farm bill.
The candidates at the forum — Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Marco Rubio — “called for reforms that would give aid recipients more incentives to work, going beyond the major welfare reform of 1996 that made the central federal program for poor families into a program offering only temporary aid in most cases. Several floated reforms that are popular in the conservative policy sphere, including devolving federal programs by delivering block grants that states would have wide latitude to administer as they wish,” said the Post.
“Some speakers advocated ending programs that have been shown to be successful — such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and offered proposals that conflict with the evidence,” said Rob Greenstein of the think tank Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. “In addition, while many GOP candidates have called for deep tax cuts that would sharply shrink federal revenues, and many have also called for balancing the budget, no candidate or other speaker explained today how they could pursue these goals without severely cutting basic assistance for the poor.”
Block grants would eliminate the ability of food stamps to respond to economic setbacks, said Greenstein, who also said states use little of their welfare funding for employment and training programs, putting into question the argument that states are looking for innovative ways to help jobless and poor people into the workforce. “There are still many more active job-seekers (7.9 million) than job openings (5.4 million), the latest Labor Department figures show. And, low-income people with the least education and skills have the hardest time in the competition for jobs,” wrote Greenstein.