McCarthy: GOP put work requirements in debt ceiling bill for child 'sitting on the couch collecting welfare'

Extremist House Republicans are furious how President Joe Biden was able to craft a debt ceiling deal without giving up much, but according to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, GOP lawmakers were able to put work requirements into the legislation that will require families using government assistance to put their “able bodied” children to work in order to continue receiving benefits.

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We also did something different,” McCarthy, trying to sell GOP voters on the bill, told Fox News Tuesday morning. “In this family we may have a child, able-bodied, not married, no kids, but he’s sitting on the couch collecting welfare.”

“We’re gonna put work requirements on that individual, so he’s going to have work requirements, he’s gonna get a job, and he’s gonna make the life easier,” McCarthy said (video below).

Fox News’ Chad Pergram also published McCarthy’s remarks via Twitter.

Last week McCarthy appeared to be trying to get the general public to accept GOP work requirements, telling reporters they would be “only for people who are able-bodied with no dependents.”

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“I don’t think it’s right that we borrow money from China to pay somebody that has no dependents, able-bodied, to sit on a couch.”

HuffPost last week explained the GOP’s “work requirements contribute a tiny amount to the overall spending reduction Republicans have proposed, but McCarthy has highlighted them as a top priority. And now the couch surfer is a symbol of that priority.”

“The changes would apply to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the much smaller Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The new rules would deny benefits to some childless adults without disabilities unless they work, volunteer or enroll in training for at least 20 hours per week. (SNAP and TANF already have work requirements along those lines, but Republicans would make them stricter.)”

Last week The Lever reported McCarthy “borrowed his punishing work requirement proposal from [a] conservative think tank pushing to loosen child labor laws.”

“McCarthy’s work requirement proposal and his gripes about dependency come straight from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), a conservative think tank that recently made headlines for helping secretly draft several state bills to roll back child labor laws,” The Lever reported.

Watch McCarthy’s remarks from Tuesday below or at this link.