When Medicare and Medicaid were created in the 1960s, they received strong support in Congress from both parties. Then, in the 1990s, a bipartisan coalition added the Children’s Health Insurance Program to the nation’s health care safety net. (I was one of the senators who voted for it.)
Unfortunately, when Congress passed Obamacare in 2009, it was enacted strictly along party lines, with the Democratic majority shutting out the Republican minority from any meaningful input.
Today, these political fault lines still keep the parties far apart on many aspects of health care policy. But there are some things that shouldn’t be debated. Recently, the Trump administration announced a new policy allowing states the flexibility to require able-bodied adults who receive Medicaid benefits to enroll in work training and education courses. Can there really be any question about encouraging those who can work to prepare themselves for today’s jobs?
We are fast approaching a full-employment economy, in which jobs will go unfilled unless people currently not seeking work do so. Already, many jobs requiring various skills go begging, with too few Americans adequately trained to fill them. And jobs today are getting better, with higher pay. Minimum wages are on the rise, and starting pay is moving higher, too. Ask the 1.5 million Walmart employees who just got a $2 an hour raise — equal to $80 more per week and $4,000 more per year — and $1,000 bonuses if that extra cash in their pockets isn’t a big deal for them. Millionaires like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi may say that’s only “crumbs,” but to working Americans, money like that is a very big deal.
All this should encourage our national leaders to cheer for America’s workers and encourage them to help grow our economy. Every increase in national productivity and economic activity creates more jobs and more upward mobility for all Americans. That’s why unemployment among African-Americans — who were hit hardest by the 2007-09 recession — is now at historic lows. But that’s not good enough. Young blacks are still under-employed, often saddled with poor education and few job skills. It’s time we focused more attention on getting them the skills for today’s employment opportunities.