Analyst shreds Kevin McCarthy's demands for work requirements in debt deal

One of the key sticking points in negotiations over the debt ceiling deal remains whether to impose new work requirements on social programs, including enhancements to the requirements to look for work to receive family welfare assistance or food stamps, and all-new requirements on Medicaid — which was tried in a few states under the Trump administration and ended up disastrous.

"I don't think it's right that Washington borrows money from China to pay somebody who is able-bodied with no dependents to sit at home on a couch," said McCarthy earlier this week to reporters. "It is proven that work requirements help lift people out of poverty and into productivity."

Except that's not true at all, explained Krissy Clark on Twitter, host of "The Uncertain Hour" investigative public policy podcast.

"Work requirements DON’T have good record of lifting people from poverty. Their record IS good on (a) fewer people in poverty receiving welfare b/c of work req red tape (b) funneling gov $ to corps that enforce/benefit from work reqs," wrote Clark. "Just 21 of every 100 families in poverty receives cash welfare. Research shows one reason is the onerous bureaucracy of work-requirements. Many have turned away from cash welfare’s red tape and used temp work as their safety net instead. But temp work often pays less, has fewer benefits than regular jobs, and the jobs don’t last. Research shows it can trap people in poverty."

In fact, Clark explained, temp work companies often lobby for work requirements because it allows them to bilk taxpayer money.

"Temp companies can get tax credits when they employ people on welfare — even though the jobs by definition won’t last, and will often not pay enough to lift people out of poverty or off govt assistance. In some states temp companies are the largest claimant of these credits," wrote Clark. "Meanwhile some private welfare contractors have a side business in processing these tax credits for the (often temp) companies they work with to place welfare recipients into jobs. AND these private welfare contractors also get financial rewards from the state when someone on their caseload gets a job — even if the job only lasts a month and pays minimum wage. Putting people into temp jobs is an easy way to get these rewards."

The upshot, she concluded, is that work requirements create a system where lower-income people try to find jobs and are set up to work in a string of temporary, poverty-wage jobs while still needing welfare payments. "They are not 'sitting on the couch,'" she wrote. "In fact many I spoke to couldn’t afford couches."