Welfare programs, including assistance programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps), and Medicaid, known as MaineCare, should be prioritized for our most vulnerable, especially people with disabilities and our elderly. Able-bodied, working-age adults without young children should be required to look for a job, participate in a job-training or educational program, or work or volunteer in exchange for benefits. 

Work and job training increase skills that lead to a better, higher-paying job or new career and build relationships that lead to less isolation. Maine’s experience with work and training requirements in the TANF program have led to more people working, more people moving off government assistance entirely, and the breaking of the cycle of generational poverty.  Maine cannot afford to roll back these and other welfare reforms, including photos on EBT cards and preventing welfare benefits from being used to purchase tobacco or alcohol. We also support putting the nutrition back into the SNAP program by restricting the purchase of candy and sugary beverages with food stamp dollars.

Our limited resources should to prioritize our people with disabilities over able-bodied residents and focus on providing a hand up not a hand out.