The Michigan House of Representatives and the Senate have passed a new “welfare reform” bill designed to limit the number of people receiving state assistance in Michigan. The bill, advocated for by Representative Jerry Kooiman, a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives from Grand Rapids, enacts a number of new measures in what has been described as the most significant change in Michigan’s welfare policy since the 1990s. Among the key measures of the new bill are limiting welfare assistance to a lifetime total of four years, instituting a “three-strikes-and-you’re out” policy for those violating welfare laws, and minor expansions of education and job training programs. Punishments under the “three strikes” police include 30-days without benefits for the first offense,

Touted by Representative Kooiman as a way to “release people from the trap of poverty” and to “protect taxpayers” from the able-bodied people receiving a lifetime “handout” through the welfare system, the legislation is an expansion of both federal welfare reform and Michigan’s efforts to reduce the welfare rolls in during the 1990s. Former Republican Governor John Engler was a leading advocate of “welfare reform” and frequently spoke quite candidly about the goal of the Republican’s welfare reform, making it clear that it had little to do with assisting the poor and had more to do with ideology and eliminating the last vestiges of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Engler, like many Republicans, has made it clear that the goal of Michigan’s policy was to “deconstruct the welfare state” and once touted his 1991 decision to eliminate benefits to more than 80,000 welfare recipients as an example of a policy designed to assist the poor.

Of course, since Michigan’s 1990s welfare reform, many former recipients have continued to live in poverty. Individuals seeking government assistance have found considerable difficulties in dealing with the welfare system and have reported that welfare-to-work programs (Work First in Michigan) do little to help them find permanent employment. A study by the Michigan Department of Career Development found that those leaving welfare earn a little over eight dollars an hour and are in most cases no better off financially, with more than half of families reporting that due to financial constraints they have been unable to pay their mortgage, rent, or utility bills at least once in the previous year. Moreover, 60% of those who leave the welfare system in Michigan remain in poverty. It is quite likely that further restrictions on welfare benefits will increase poverty in Michigan and particular concern has been raised about the lifetime limit to welfare assistance, a provision that could be particularly harmful due to the cyclical nature of Michigan’s economy and troubles the state’s auto industry is facing.