BLESSED AREN’T THE MEEK

For Easter, Let’s Teach Billionaires the ‘Dignity of Work’ Requirements

Republicans are proposing work requirements for Medicaid to kick people off the rolls. What if the rich had to learn the lessons as the poor?

Opinion

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is deeply concerned that government largesse might be corrupting the souls of a shiftless population. So to get those layabouts off their ample duffs and into gainful employment, he and other congressional Republicans are looking to impose work requirements on Medicaid.

“Little things like that make a big difference not only in the budgeting process but in the morale of the people,” Johnson said. “Work is good for you. You find dignity in work.”

The budget blueprint passed by Republicans on April 10 calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts, many of which will likely come from Medicaid. And work requirements—which will kick millions of people off their coverage—are one of the ways they want to do it.

But if this is the standard we’re going to use—that you should prove your moral fitness to receive government benefits by documenting your work hours—I propose that we apply the same principle to the public assistance we bestow on the wealthy. Surely they, too, should enjoy the dignity that only comes from labor.

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Before we consider our well-heeled brethren, some background: 79 million Americans are currently enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, its subsidiary program for kids. The extremely popular program pays for over half of all long-term care for seniors and 42 percent of all births.

These are facts that bother conservatives, who have a philosophical objection to this kind of big government. Work requirements, they hope, will be a way of reducing the rolls. And they have a facial appeal: Isn’t it a good thing for people to work?

It makes sense as long as you don’t know too much about it.

First, almost everyone on Medicaid is already either working or has a valid reason why they aren’t. According to a recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “92 percent were working full or part-time (64 percent), or not working due to caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or school attendance.” Nobody says, “Now that I’ve got this sweet health coverage, I don’t need a job!”

Second, in practice, a work requirement is actually a paperwork requirement, requiring recipients to navigate a bureaucratic obstacle course of documenting and verifying their work hours at the risk of losing their coverage if they make a mistake. In his first term, Trump invited states to submit work requirement plans; the one that got the farthest in implementation was Arkansas, and it was a disaster. More than 18,000 people lost their health coverage in less than a year before a judge suspended the program, yet there was no effect on employment.

Finally, work requirements represent a moral judgment that we only impose on poor people: Unlike the wealthy or the middle class, they must show they possess sufficient personal virtue before they can participate.

So let’s take Speaker Johnson at his word, that it just burns him up to see the slothful receiving government largesse. How about we apply that to everyone?

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We can start with the mortgage interest deduction, through which the government effectively pays part of the mortgage interest for millions of families—but only those wealthy enough to own a home and itemize their deductions. Can we trust that they’re not just lying on the couch eating bonbons?

Wealthy farmers benefit from the copious agriculture subsidies the government doles out; one analysis in 2016 found that 50 people on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans received farm subsidies. The tax code even has special provisions for yacht owners. We need to know if they’re working.

The special tax treatment of capital gains tax is particularly likely to be abused by the lazy, since, unlike wages—money you get for working—capital gains occur when your money makes you more money. Today, the top income tax rate is 37 percent, but the top capital gains tax rate is a mere 20 percent.

Surely we shouldn’t be just handing out this special treatment to indolent slackers sipping margaritas by the pool. So, the answer is simple: If you plan on taking capital gains this year, you will have to check in weekly to document your work hours. Don’t forget to upload the form that your boss has to sign.

While we’re at it, why not make those benefits contingent on monthly drug tests? This shouldn’t be too much of an imposition—after all, it’s not like anyone on Wall Street ever snorted coke.

The same should go for big government contracts: If you want that money, the CEO has to pee in a cup. It may be humiliating, but it protects the taxpayers. Just imagine what would happen if someone with billions in federal contracts were a habitual ketamine user!

If the rich squawk, we should tell them: Think of this not as an imposition, but a gift. You may be wealthy, but did you really have “dignity”? Well, now you will. You’re welcome.

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Paul Waldman

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