Welfare reform should include work, Ohio reps say

[james_1957]

Welfare reform!

Need money to make a mortgage payment or pay rent? Get a job!

Need money to make a lease or car payment? Get a job!

Need money to eat or feed the family? Get a job!

WASHINGTON More than 20 years after Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and John Kasich reformed “welfare as we know it,” two Ohio lawmakers are vowing to do it again, saying the government must do more to encourage people to work rather than live on federal largesse.

Reps. Jim Jordan, R–Urbana and Warren Davidson, R–Troy, want to start by looking at some 92 federal means-tested programs — they include everything from cash aid to food aid to housing — and consolidating them. They said that any social worker would be daunted by finding the best out of 92 programs and many of them are duplicative.

They want to do this through a bipartisan panel comparable to the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission: A bipartisan group would spend a year taking a hard look at all 92 programs, consolidating and eliminating where necessary, and Congress would have to vote on those recommendations as a package on an up-or-down basis.

But more broadly, Jordan, who, like Davidson is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, would like to beef up work requirements to receive federal benefits. While the Clinton–era welfare package created work requirements through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, such requirements weren’t instituted for other means–tested federal programs.

http://www.cantonrep.com/news/20170724/welfare-reform-should-include-work-ohio-reps-say