The Clinton-era law added work requirements, but politicians since have chipped away at them.
Work requirements for healthy welfare recipients make sense to most Americans. But in Washington those are fighting words, and they have become a welcome point of contention in the debate over raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy surprised the White House and much of the political press last month when he brought together his Republican caucus to pass a bill that raises the debt limit. President Biden had reasoned that GOP infighting would doom any chance of that happening and that Democrats ultimately would be able to lift the debt ceiling without significant policy reform. That gambit failed, and now the pressure is on the president to compromise on a final deal. Democrats performed better than expected in last year’s midterm elections, but they still lost control of the House.
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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