Executive spite? An important battle to fight!

Her mother now owns and operates a catering business, but when Sarah was much younger, she remembers being afraid of the lights going out because mom was struggling with the bills.

Her mother was working full time but it paid minimum wage and she just couldn’t make ends meet. It helped that Sarah and her brother were eligible for the free lunch program at their State College school, but it was food stamps (or, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) that she says was their safety net and security.

“SNAP helped us,” says Sarah. “And it is my hope that the assistance program will continue to give families, especially children, food security for as long as it is needed.”

But thanks to a new executive order signed by President Trump on April 10th, children with the greatest need may be cut off. That’s because the order allows states to require federal benefit recipients to work.

Alarmingly, the PA House moved work requirement legislation for SNAP and Medicaid programs the very next day.

To be clear, we believe those who are able should work. But, oddly enough, that’s not the issue. Let us explain.

The vast majority of people receiving SNAP and Medicaid benefits are seniors, children and the disabled, groups to whom the work requirements don’t apply, or are already working.

Of those who are working, they still can’t afford food for their families or health insurance costs—and some aren’t offered health insurance from their employer—the exact, crushing situation Sarah’s mother used to be in.

Nationally, 82% of families in SNAP have a worker within one year of enrolling for the benefit. In the Commonwealth, 64% of Medicaid recipients work and 79% of recipients have a worker in their household.  

But the remaining able-bodied folks who would have to comply with a work requirement rule are either not qualified for open jobs or have a real, serious impediment to either working or working more hours, such as caring for a disabled family member.

Is President Trump suggesting that they get sick and go hungry? Are we comfortable with the same fate befalling their children?

When parents don’t have health insurance, research shows that their kids are likely to go without it as well.  When parents can’t put food on the table, their kids go without and suffer from malnourishment. They go to school with empty bellies that distract them from learning which can sabotage their opportunities for success.

Benefits like SNAP work like they’re supposed to. Just ask Sarah or her mom. 

If we are serious about getting people to work, then we need serious job initiatives to build skills the marketplace demands and a sustained, concerted effort to increase access to child care–or these work requirements are simply punitive measures.

The executive order will create major crises in the lives of those who can’t afford another. Blithely pushing them into ruin will only deepen their need for supports, when helping them succeed really ought to be the objective.

It’s a textbook example of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Spitefulness shouldn’t be a characteristic of any government.

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Tell your State Representative to oppose SNAP work requirements!

Tell your State Senator to oppose Medicaid work requirements!