- The reconciliation package severs the tie between work and welfare. By providing a permanent expansion of new unconditional cash grants for families that choose not to work, it turns back the clock on decades of welfare reform success.
- Paying able-bodied Americans not to work is not good for those individuals or for society. Welfare payouts push disadvantaged Americans out of the labor force and toward the margins of society. The point of welfare reform should be to assist Americans in their efforts to support themselves, not permanently trap them outside work.
- The Biden plan generally makes work less rewarding for those who hold jobs, discourages work for those who don’t, and undermines intergenerational modelling of the importance of work. It thereby reduces the likelihood that low-income Americans will find meaningful work and healthy marriages. Instead of stronger families and more jobs, Americans will see more dependence on government and less mobility.
Resources:
- More Bad Policies and Government Spending Will Worsen Labor Shortage (October 12, 2021)
- Why Work Matters and How the Safety Net Should Encourage It (October 8, 2021)
- We Shouldn’t Return to Welfare As We Knew It (September 20, 2021)
- Bait and Switch: Biden Child-Allowance “Tax Relief” Overturns Welfare Reform (July 16, 2021)
- Biden “Child Allowance” Is a Bait and Switch That Offers Zero Long-Term Tax Relief: Instead, It Permanently Eliminates Work Requirements (July 8, 2021)
