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Work requirements and food stamps

 




Oddly, the debt ceiling debate became linked in the mind both of legislators and the public with modifications to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-- i.e. "food stamps."

The literal use of pieces of paper as food "stamps," has gone by the boards and SNAP transactions now involve plastic cards that look a lot like credit or debit cards. Politicians still once in a while spout off about how they saw someone buying (insert name of a luxury food item here) at the grocery store with food stamps and they were indignant because SNAP should be used for basic nutrition, blah blah blah. 

I think the salience of that as an issue has declined in recent years. The plastic cards may have something to do with it. It is difficult to tell whether the person ahead of you in line is using "food stamps" at all. Heck, automated checkout kiosks probably worsen the opportunities for such on-site oversight even further, since you'd literally have to be looking over the shoulder of the person in front of you, not at a beltway going past both of you. 

Anyway: there have been work requirements in place for Food Stamps for a long time. Able-bodied adults 50 years old or younger without dependent children have to work at least 80 hours a month to be eligible. "Working" here means responding to the referrals from the relevant state bureaucrats. 

The debt ceiling has been suspended in part because President Biden agreed to an increase of the age of the applicability of this work requirement from 50 to 54. This is supposed to generate savings because ... whatever. One hopeful possibility: the assignments will help the 51 to 53 year olds make contacts, prove they are good at productive activity, and so learn how to earn enough money not to require public assistance any longer? And so pay taxes off their future payrolls and limit the continuing build-up of debt? Is that it? It sounds like a Rube Goldberg contraption to me. And I am not inclined to be optimistic. 

A more likely route for savings is that some of those newly subject to the work requirement won't comply with it. Which is their choice, of course, but it does mean that powerful (and very well-fed) people in Washington are demanding a contribution from marginal folks who use SNAP. They are saying "if some of you stop using food stamps, we will be able to avoid a catastrophic debt default."The CBO scores the new work requirements as a net money LOSER for Uncle Sam.

This is all purely symbolic from the point of view of the corridors of Congress, but may be of great pragmatic import for some 51 year old folks. You don't have to be a fan of the welfare state (I surely am not), to see something off-kilter here. 


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