Republican Kansas nominee for governor and Secretary of State Kris Kobach has plans to remake America through a number of initiatives including more restrictive immigration laws and stricter restrictions for those people who receive state welfare and Medicaid benefits.
Kobach’s package of welfare reform initiatives includes proposing more work requirements, mandatory drug testing, and citizenship verification for all welfare recipients. These requirements should help to limit the ability of many people to receive food, cash and Medicaid benefits from the state.
Kobach, who is endorsed by President Trump, says that welfare reform is at the top of his priority list. He says that the government must provide a helping hand to those in need — not a handout to those who don’t need it, like illegal immigrants and able-bodied people who refuse to work. He believes that government assistance should help people out of poverty instead of enabling them to purchase drugs and other things. Kobach said that creating a population of citizens who are dependent on the government for necessities are not what he wants for the future of Kansas. His goal is to create an economic environment that creates high-paying jobs to U.S. citizens, not a system that rewards government dependence.
Kobach’s reforms include:
- Requiring able-bodied adults to be working at least 30 hours per week to be eligible for food stamps, which is known formally as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. People who get cash assistance or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) would also be required to work 30 hours per week. The current law requires just 20 hours per week of work to qualify for benefits.
- People enrolled in any of the government programs will be required to prove that they are in the United States legally. The new law would mandate the use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, This program verifies that welfare beneficiaries are in the United States legally. This requirement would prohibit illegal immigrants from getting benefits.
- People enrolled in SNAP or Medicaid would have to agree to participate in drug testing to be eligible for benefits.
Kobach asserts said there are currently 118,00 adults in Kansas that receive government food stamp assistance. He said that nearly 30 percent of those people are able-bodied adults who are not working.
Kobach said that welfare reform is necessary because Kansas needs more workers. The state has a low unemployment rate of just 3.3 percent. This rate is well below average. There are many more job openings than job seekers in Kansas.
According to Kobach, the administration must encourage people to get off welfare and fill the jobs that are open. This will help reduce the number of worker shortages in the state.
The Secretary of State said at a recent press conference that there is no reason for an able-bodied person to be collecting welfare at the expense of hard-working citizens. He said that there are multiple open jobs that these people could be working to fill. Kobach said that the time has come to move people off of welfare and into jobs.
~ Liberty Planet
