Khanna: Work Requirements ‘Cruel, Especially as We See the Slowing down of the Economy’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) argued that imposing work requirements for certain federal government benefit programs as part of a deal to raise the debt limit would be “cruel, especially as we see the slowing down of the economy.” And stated that imposing work requirements would be a nonstarter for him and that work requirements don’t make people work more, but just deprive people who need the help of benefits.

Khanna said, “It’s a nonstarter for me. Peter Edelman, I remember, resigned over this in the 1990s. The studies are so clear that work requirements don’t make people work more. What it does is deprive folks who need the help of food, people who are on the street, people who are homeless, people who are disabled. And it’s just cruel, especially as we see the slowing down of the economy. I’m hopeful the president will stick to what he said, that we pay our debts, and then we can negotiate on the budget. By the way, one thing we should cap is tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations. Why don’t we have a cap on that? That will start to reduce our deficits.”

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