Since when did linking work to welfare handouts become so controversial?

Should you work to get welfare?

Republicans in the House of Representatives say yes. It’s the right answer.

House Republicans passed their proposal to raise the debt ceiling Wednesday, and they’ve rallied around work requirements for able-bodied childless adults on Medicaid and food stamps.

This is a smart policy that will save taxpayers billions, strengthen our economy at a critical moment and even put Social Security and Medicare on stronger financial footing.

It’s also smart politics, enjoying overwhelming support from Americans of every political stripe.

The last time the Republican Party seriously mobilized on work requirements was 30 years ago.

In the 1990s, the GOP worked with a Democratic president to fundamentally reform welfare.

They helped millions of Americans move from government dependence to financial independence, finding the dignity and opportunity that come with work.

Yet in the past decade — especially since the pandemic’s start — welfare has again been divorced from work.

The consequences are as painful as they were predictable.

At least 35 million able-bodied adults are getting government support without having to work, train or volunteer.

These are people who can and should be finding their best and most productive path in life.

Instead, their own government has effectively given up on them, holding them back instead of helping them move forward.

This is wrong — and economically disastrous.

With millions of able-bodied adults on the sidelines, America is experiencing a massive worker shortage.

Ten million jobs are open, close to a record.

That’s nearly two jobs for every unemployed person looking for work.

Job creators, especially on Main Street, can’t maintain business as usual, much less expand, because they can’t find enough people.

But more than enough workers are out there, if only Washington would encourage them to look for jobs.

House Republicans want to do exactly that: empower people to get off the sidelines and back into the economy.

No one stands to benefit more than the tens of millions of Americans who will have a better shot at a better life.

Taxpayers will gain too.

My organization estimates that House Republicans’ proposed work requirement for Medicaid and food stamps would save about $154 billion over the next 10 years.

But work requirements wouldn’t just cut federal spending. They would also boost revenue — a true twofer.

Think about it: More people working means more people paying taxes.

We assess that moving as few as 4 million people from welfare to work would increase Social Security revenue by more than $60 billion over the next decade and give Medicare an extra $25 billion.

With both programs on a fast track to bankruptcy, work requirements can help ensure they remain for people who truly need them.

These work requirements are generous, not going nearly as far as they could.

They only apply to childless adults between the ages of 18 and 55.

The savings for taxpayers — and boost for Social Security and Medicare — would be even greater if the policy covered adults who don’t have young children and other adults younger than retirement age.

It also starts with just a part-time requirement.

Fortunately, 20 hours a week is still a powerful motivator that will help move millions of people from welfare to work.

With this proposal, House Republicans have firmly placed themselves on the side of workers, taxpayers and small businesses.

The question is: Will the Biden administration and Democrats in the Senate play ball?

They would be foolish not to.

Just two weeks before Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the plan, Wisconsin voted overwhelmingly in support of work requirements for welfare recipients, with the backing of a staggering 80% of voters.

My organization has sponsored polling with similar results.

This month, we found that huge majorities support Medicaid and food-stamp work requirements — including roughly two-thirds of likely Democratic voters and more than two-thirds of likely independents.

Work requirements are easily the most popular part of the House GOP’s proposal, which makes them one of the most likely parts to make it through to a final debt-ceiling deal.

Democrats will bellyache, no question, but they don’t want to spend the next few months explaining why able-bodied adults with no kids should get paid to sit on the couch.

That’s a losing proposition with voters.

You don’t have to wonder why Americans want this.

True compassion means helping people on government support ultimately get off it, leaving dependency behind.

By the same token, true prudence requires protecting taxpayers from endless spending, especially on people who can work.

Republicans in Congress recognize these truths.

For the sake of taxpayers, businesses and most of all welfare recipients themselves, let’s hope President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats agree — and once again connect welfare with work.

Tarren Bragdon is CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability.