Wisconsin may be leading the nation on welfare reform. Gov. Scott Walker has been pushing to have able bodied welfare recipients maintain employment and lessen the number of people in his state depending on the government for food, housing and Medicaid.
“Public assistance should be a trampoline not a hammock,” said Walker in The Hill article. Walker has been at the forefront of change on welfare legislation for many years and Washington is listening.
“Public assistance should be a trampoline not a hammock,” said Walker in The Hill article. Walker has been at the forefront of change on welfare legislation for many years and Washington is listening.
Like Walker, many leaders view welfare as a temporary fix. Reagan's Welfare to Work program and Clinton's Personal responsibility Act attempted to reduce spending tax payer dollars on welfare. Obama cut food stamps by $8.7 billion in 2014 that would take effect over a 10 year period through the Department of Agriculture.
The Trump Administration is expected to sign an executive order on welfare reform in January 2018. Trump has stated he wants to protect certain safety net programs to avoid crippling those with the greatest needs but conservatives in general are eager to enforce stricter eligibility requirements and grant states control over government assistance programs.
Those who are impacted by any form of public assistance should prepare for change. House Speaker Paul Ryan has alluded to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid being cut as a part of managing the nation's debt.