Not Disabled, Not Working, and Getting Government Help: White House Report Details the Extent of the Problem
“Today there’s a new paper out from the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. It basically lays out the justification for Republicans’ various efforts to reform the safety net this year, including proposed changes to food stamps and housing assistance. In essence, the GOP aims to double down on the 1996 reform to cash welfare by beefing up work requirements in other poverty programs. About one in five non-disabled, working-age adults now receive at least one type of welfare benefit, the report finds. Most of the adults on Medicaid, food stamps, and housing assistance are neither elderly nor disabled — and most of the non-elderly, non-disabled adults on food stamps and Medicaid (and 45 percent of those on housing assistance) don’t work at all in a given month.”