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TRUMP CABINET MEMBERS REGURGITATE LIES ABOUT WORK REQUIREMENTS  
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Jake Johnson
May 14, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "Washington politicians are ignoring clear data and forcing
reporting requirements on working Americans as a cynical ploy to kick
working people off their healthcare." _

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz
at a “Make Indiana Healthy Again” kickoff at the Indiana State
Library on April 15., (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital
Chronicle)

 

Top Trump administration officials took to the pages of _The New York
Times_ on Wednesday to champion the idea of work requirements as
Republican lawmakers attempt to impose such mandates on recipients of
Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance—an effort that could
result in millions losing benefits.

The new op-ed
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authored by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr
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Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, Agriculture
Secretary Brooke Rollins, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Scott Turner.

The Cabinet members endorsed "efforts to require able-bodied adults
(defined as adults who have not been certified as physically or
mentally unfit to work), with some exceptions, to get jobs" and urged
Congress to "enact common-sense reforms into law."

Alarmingly, the Trump administration officials pointed to Clinton-era
welfare reform as a model for "successful" policy change. They neglect
to mention that extreme poverty more than doubled
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the wake of the 1996 overhaul.

"The good news is that history shows us that work requirements work,"
the officials wrote.

Research and state-level experiments with work requirements belie that
claim. Journalist Bryce Covert noted
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response to the administration officials' op-ed that "there have been
many, many studies on the impacts of work requirements—both in the
90s and today—and the clear consensus is that they deprive people of
benefits without increasing employment."

One study
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Arkansas' brief implementation of Medicaid work requirements during
the first Trump administration found "no evidence that the policy
succeeded in its stated goal of promoting work and instead found
substantial evidence of harm to healthcare coverage and access."

A recent review
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the literature on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
work requirements similarly concluded that "the best evidence shows
they do not increase employment."

That didn't stop congressional Republicans from making work
requirements a centerpiece of their proposed cuts to Medicaid and
SNAP. The GOP's proposed work requirements for Medicaid
recipients—most of whom already work if they are able to
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for over $300 billion of the bill's projected spending cuts to the
program over the next decade.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) said Tuesday that
the Republican plans for SNAP
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put millions of people at risk of losing benefits, in large part due
to the administrative red tape that work requirements and reporting
mandates inevitably bring.

The group cited research showing that "many people who lose SNAP are
working or should have qualified for an exemption, but the
bureaucratic red tape made documenting their employment or proving
their exemption too difficult."

On Wednesday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) released a report
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the impacts of Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Georgia.

"These two case studies are a cautionary tale," the report found.
"They show that work reporting requirements are not effective. Instead
of getting more people working, they simply kick people off their
healthcare, many of whom were already working full-time."

In a statement, Warnock said research "shows that the best way to
create jobs and grow the economy is to remove bureaucratic red tape
that keeps working people from accessing healthcare."

"Instead, Washington politicians are ignoring clear data and forcing
reporting requirements on working Americans as a cynical ploy to kick
working people off their healthcare," said Warnock. "All of this so
they can fund a tax cut for the ultra-wealthy."

_Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Medicaid
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* SNAP
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* Work requirements
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* lies
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