Far outside the Beltway, away from the ever-changing media cycle and circus, voters are less worried about what happened on Twitter and more worried about issues that impact them. It’s these issues — opportunities to work, access to affordable healthcare, and concern about the growing welfare state — that lawmakers should prioritize come November.
For too long, the government has put up barriers to individuals’ economic success. Our welfare system is notorious for taking beneficiaries captive, leaving millions of able-bodied adults on the sidelines as the economy has continued to strengthen. Every tax dollar that’s spent on able-bodied adults on welfare is one that can’t be spent on education, roads, public safety, or the truly needy. Voters realize this, and they’re demanding a change.
This isn’t just happening in states where representatives pushed for welfare reform within the House farm bill — voters in states across the country support reforms (and the policymakers who introduce the reforms) that get able-bodied adults off welfare and back to work.
Recent polling out of Michigan shows that voters overwhelmingly support reforms that emphasize work as the solution to government dependency. According to the poll, 76 percent of all likely Michigan voters, Republicans and Democrats alike, support requiring able-bodied adults with no children at home to work, train, or volunteer at least part-time in order to receive food stamps. About 75 percent believe similar work requirements should be in place for able-bodied adults on Medicaid.
And Michigan isn’t alone. Nearly 80 percent of Alaskans support work requirements for able-bodied adults on food stamps, and 74 percent support them for able-bodied adults on Medicaid.
Michigan and Alaska may be 2,700 miles apart, but clearly voters in both states are thinking along the same lines: work works. And it does.
When work requirements for able-bodied adults were implemented in Kansas, individuals’ time on welfare was cut in half. Able-bodied adults rejoined the workforce in droves, finding employment in more than 600 different industries and more than doubling their incomes, on average. Lost benefits were more than offset by earned wages, and their lives substantially improved.
Welfare programs ought to be a pit stop on the road of self-sufficiency for able-bodied adults — not the destination. That’s what voters are looking forward to, and candidates would be wise to champion welfare reform and hone in on that message now.
But voters don’t just want to see the welfare system returned to its original intent. They’re looking for ways to solve another massive problem facing our country: access to affordable, quality healthcare.
Since 2013, health insurance premiums have risen by more than 105 percent. Few communities have gone unaffected by the rapid increase in health insurance costs — how could they be, when healthcare is such a large deduction from paychecks? But limited solutions have existed — until now.
Polling shows that the majority of all Michigan voters support providing consumers access to short-term health plans for up to three years. They understand that short-term plans, like those supported by the Trump administration, would enable nearly 2 million uninsured Americans to secure health insurance that’s up to 80 percent less expensive. Offering affordable, quality coverage to individuals between jobs, those with part-time jobs, or even those who missed an enrollment deadline is a commonsense solution to a problem facing many workers.
And that’s who will show up at the polls in November — workers. Whatever the Beltway gossip is come November, these men and women will be looking for candidates that will fight for their opportunities to work and be successful. Let’s hope they have some worthy options.
Kristina Rasmussen is vice president of federal affairs at the Opportunity Solutions Project.