Food Stamps and the Forgotten Man: Fixing SNAP
Congressman Jim Jordan (OH-4)
Best-selling author Amity Shlaes chose a thoughtful and appropriate title for her 2007 work about the Great Depression: The Forgotten Man. The term originated from an 1883 article of the same name by scholar and author William Graham Sumner and was later used (or misused) by President Franklin Roosevelt in a 1932 fireside chat.
Though FDR used the term to describe folks in need of a handout, Sumner’s original piece and his later speech on the topic used it to describe blue-collar workers whose labor and sweat helped pay for all the costly “reform” programs that seemed to benefit only others. More eloquently, Sumner stated:
“Now who is the Forgotten Man? He is the simple, honest laborer, ready to earn his living by productive work. We pass him by because he is independent, self-supporting, and asks no favors. He does not appeal to the emotions or excite the sentiments. He only wants to make a contract and fulfill it, with respect on both sides and favor on neither side. He must get his living out of the capital of the country. The larger the capital is, the better living he can get. Every particle of capital which is wasted on the vicious, the idle, and the shiftless is so much taken from the capital available to reward the independent and productive laborer.”
It’s sad to think this could happen in America, but how often do we see this play out today?
Imagine the second-shift worker pulling out of his driveway and heading to work one afternoon. He knows he might be missing his kids’ soccer games or a school play, but he also knows that his steady work and sacrifice, day in and day out, is helping his family make ends meet and will perhaps one day give his children a chance at a better life.
Imagine this man driving down the street to work and passing his neighbor a few doors down, sitting on his porch and reading the newspaper. He knows his neighbor is able-bodied and can work. But he also knows his neighbor chooses not to work, and that his neighbor, through the generous social safety net our nation provides, can live about the same type of lifestyle as those (like him) who get up and go to work every day.
Now imagine, as that second-shift worker drives out of his neighborhood, a second-grade teacher is driving in on her way home from a long day at school. She passes the same able-bodied neighbor on the porch and shakes her head in frustration. And as both workers are listening to the news on their car radios, they hear about Washington giving taxpayer bailouts to big banks, big corporations, and well-connected special interests while running up trillions in borrowed debt that these workers must pay back.
Indeed, the forgotten man might be a time-worn phrase, but many of the hardworking, middle-class folks I have the privilege to represent see this happening every day, and they feel much like the forgotten man that Shlaes and Sumner talk about.
The good news is that we can turn this around by restoring an incentive to work.
That’s why I was proud to stand with my fellow conservatives to introduce a bill called the Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act, a bill that would use the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help Americans rise out of poverty. Modeled after the bipartisan 1996 welfare reform law, this bill would establish work requirements for the federal food stamp program. This change would encourage self-sufficiency, purpose, and dignity and help impoverished Americans find their purpose and see beyond what the government can provide. It is a big dose of tough love, tempered with outside assistance, to help get Americans back to work.
Under this reform, able-bodied individuals between age 19 and 62 would have to be working or looking for work, volunteering in their community, enrolled in a job training program, or attending school to receive benefits. For those looking for work, professionals would supervise the search, thus improving the odds that the search ends in employment and not an endless string of rejection letters.
Requirements would vary depending on a person’s situation. Single parents with dependent children would have less stringent requirements than individuals without dependents so they could spend more time taking care of their family.
The program would also empower states by incentivizing decreases in poverty and increases in self-sufficiency in the war on poverty.
From a fiscal standpoint, Americans deserve this reform. Work requirements help guarantee a return on the investment of our tax dollars to get people off the government rolls and onto a sustainable economic path. They also empower undereducated, unemployed Americans by giving them a game plan to achieving financial independence and the American dream. That way no one is forgotten — the unemployed or the middle class.
