After pushing for the passage of a bill that would "reform" the welfare system in Michigan for the past two years, Republican legislators in Lansing gained Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm's support yesterday for a bill that will limit welfare recipients to a lifetime limit of four years of assistance. The compromise was crafted by Grand Rapids Republican representative Jerry Kooiman and Ann Arbor Democratic representative Chris Kolb. Despite vetoing a bill last year that limited assistance to four years for being too harsh, Granholm has agreed to a deal on this bill citing a variety of provisions that will allegedly help to make sure that "no family, no children who need assistance will be arbitrarily removed from cash assistance." The measure still includes penalties for recipients that violate provisions outlining work and educational requirements, but offers an additional year of assistance if they have not been "sanctioned" for violations and if the job market is down. The bill allows the director of the Michigan Department of Human Services create rules that would allow people with "extenuating circumstances" stay on welfare beyond four years and exempts people with disabilities, specific physical limitations, and chronic mental health from the lifetime limits. There are additional stipulations that will allow for the lifetime limit to be "paused" if the economy is particularly bad.
The welfare reform effort was led by Grand Rapids Republican representative Jerry Kooiman, who last year touted the plan as a way to "release people from poverty" and to "protect taxpayers" from people unnecessarily receiving a lifetime "handout." Many in Kooiman's district opposed the measure and accused him of ignoring the concerns of African-American constituents while he talked about the need for "tough love" for those on welfare. Senator Bill Hardiman of Kentwood—another strong supporter of the measure--was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the bill will help those who have for "too long so many have been locked up in a cycle of dependency." However, various studies have found that far from "freeing people from the grasp of poverty," 60% of people who leave the welfare system in Michigan stay in poverty and that most find work in low wage jobs that make it difficult to pay bills and mortgages. Moreover, the idea that there are legions of "able-bodied" individuals that are "unwilling" to get a job--popularized by former President Ronald Reagan's fictional "welfare queen" that drove a Cadillac and had collected $150,000 in unnecessary government assistance--is a myth and has contributed to the idea that people are poor because they are lazy. There are currently only 88,133 households receiving welfare payments in Michigan, down from a high of 241,157 in the early 1980s due to a bipartisan effort at both the federal and state level.
