The Best Antipoverty Program We Have
Exchanging welfare for self-sufficiency
by Congressman Jason Smith and Congressman Darin LaHood
Each year, American taxpayers fund a fragmented and often confusing safety net system that spans more than 80 different federal programs at a cost of more than $1 trillion each year. While these programs provide important assistance to help those in poverty, they often fail in helping those same individuals move out of poverty. The sad truth is that more people are receiving these welfare benefits today than at any time in our nation’s history.
In 2023, one in four Americans were enrolled in Medicaid. Meanwhile, the number of Americans receiving food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) grew by 18 percent to reach 41 million people in the same period. This is not what success looks like.
We have lost sight of the fact that a job is the best anti-poverty program that exists.
In April, the Ways and Means Committee convened the first-ever U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing at a homeless shelter to focus on this fact. The group convened at the Pacific Garden Mission, one of the oldest faith-based homeless shelters in the country. This historic location provided the perfect backdrop to listen to the real stories of individuals whose lives were transformed by work and what it takes to shepherd those in crisis from poverty to independence.
The purpose of our welfare system should not simply be to provide a welfare check and walk away. The purpose should be to realize and cultivate the potential God has given every single person. However, as federal support has grown, programs have largely failed to focus on how to help escape poverty through self-sufficiency. Instead, success is measured by how many new people are added to the rolls of these programs. This approach discourages people from seeking a path to work. It also discourages constructing these programs to help transition individuals off them, leading to perpetual enrollment.
We know this from recent history. Under the American Rescue Plan Act, the Child Tax Credit was transformed from a program that rewards work to one that doesn’t; unemployment benefits paid people more not to work. As a result, a government check was worth more than a paycheck and millions of families sat on the sidelines. It is not the fault of those families. They were just responding to the incentives Washington provided.
We have lost sight of the fact that a job is the best antipoverty program that exists.
Work is more than a paycheck. Work provides individuals with a sense of purpose and self-worth, brings stability to families, and strengthens communities. Every person has skills and abilities they can offer to their community. Helping them find success is often just a matter of connecting those skills with the right job. When people are not able to apply their talents, they miss out on the dignity that comes from work, and their communities are denied their contributions.
Relying on a government check can weaken an individual’s ability to use and grow their skills. Instead of climbing out of poverty, families find themselves without hope and trapped with fewer options for their future.
Children with parents who are unable to find meaningful employment often struggle in school and face more severe mental health issues, contributing to a generational cycle of poverty. In fact, one in every three children who grow up in poverty will raise their own children in poverty. We must break this cycle.
Clearly, the path from welfare to independence is not easy or straightforward. Folks often must first overcome the barriers that contributed to poverty — like mental health or educational challenges, substance abuse, health problems, and neglect. But the pathway to gainful employment should always be the goal and primary focus for all our assistance programs. Work is not a punishment; it is an opportunity to serve others and realize our full potential.
There’s more we can and should do. Last year, the Fiscal Responsibility Act helped strengthen work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs. These reforms were passed with the basic understanding that the best path out of poverty is a job and no amount of government assistance, no matter how well-intentioned, can substitute for the dignity that work brings to individuals, their families, and their communities.
Just as Citygate Network provides vision, education, training, and resources to help move people from human suffering to human flourishing, the Ways and Means Committee will continue to focus our efforts on the best anti-poverty program we know to do the same thing: move people from welfare to work.
Congressman Jason Smith was elected to Congress in 2013 after serving in the Missouri General Assembly for eight years. As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Jason’s top priority is delivering for the working families, farmers, and small businesses that make the American economy the envy of the world.
Congressman Darin LaHood is serving his fourth full term in Congress, representing the 16th Congressional District of Illinois, which spans 21 counties across central and northwestern Illinois. Darin is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare.
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This article originally appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of INSTIGATE magazine. © Citygate Network, All rights reserved. Please email editor@citygatenetwork.org for additional permissions.