Good paying jobs, not work requirements for government assistance.

The deal struck between Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy to raise the debt limit is sure no win for poor folks.

It’s a definite win for the wealthy and the military-industrial complex.

The record Defense budget passed by the Democrats last year remains untouched.

An important reminder is that the Democrats could have avoided all this if they had passed an increase to the debt limit back in 2022 when they had majorities in both houses.

The ONLY ones paying the cost of this compromise now are those so desperately poor that they need government assistance to feed their families.

As I write this is it unclear whether the compromise is cruel enough to the poor for McCarthy to win over the overtly fascist wing of the MAGA Party.

At this point the Democrats seem willing to go with it.

The work requirement to receive government assistance is bogus.

While the unemployment rate remains low, the share of of people working or seeking work has not still not even returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Plus secure, well-paying jobs for all who need them is still not a thing.

So what was Biden willing to do?

He agreed to cut food stamps and put in place work requirement for those who continue to require need SNAP benefits.

Of course it is currently a fact that 3 in 4 of those receiving SNAP benefits are in households with working-age adults without disabilities are already employed.

For households with children, it is nearly 90 percent.

More than half of non-elderly Medicaid enrollees are already working — sometimes multiple jobs — and nearly three-quarters live in a family where at least one member is working.

Most of the rest have caregiving responsibilities and/or health problems. 

So, the point of including work requirements to receive assistance isn’t to put people to work at good paying jobs.

In fact, just the opposite.

For example, the year after Arkansas became the first state to institute work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries in 2018, 18,000 residents lost their health insurance.

The results were increased medical debt and interruptions in care, such as losing access to needed medications.

And there was no evidence of increased employment.