Says Amy McGrath "wants to fund more welfare for people who can work, but don’t."
Hannah Thornton, a single mom, sits in her kitchen and praises the GOP tax plan in a new ad running in Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District. As the screen cuts to a sepia-toned image of the U.S. Capitol building, Hannah says, "I don’t understand why Amy McGrath ... wants to fund more welfare for people who can work, but don’t." Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot, is the Democratic candidate running against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr in what is expected to be a November toss-up race. The two have sparred on the role that welfare, and specifically Medicaid, should play in Kentucky. The sponsor of the ad is the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican PAC closely aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan. We wanted to know whether McGrath has called for "more welfare" for people who can work, but don't. The Congressional Leadership Fund pointed us toward two instances in which, they say, McGrath supported welfare for those who are able to work but don’t: her stances on a Kentucky Medicaid waiver, and the 2018 farm bill. Key takeaways McGrath opposes work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP recipients. Right now, neither program requires recipients to work to get benefits. McGrath has no plans to extend welfare to more people; she has only advocated for maintaining the status quo. The Kentucky HEALTH conundrum In January 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved a proposal from Kentucky leaders through the federal Medicaid waiver application process, in which states can submit proposals to use federal Medicaid funds in nontraditional ways. Under Gov. Matt Bevin's plan, called Kentucky HEALTH, adult Medicaid recipients would be required to work or volunteer to receive benefits, if they are able. In July, a federal judge blocked the measure, saying the proposal didn’t fully consider federal requirements for access to health care. But the idea behind it remains a talking point in the state’s politics. Barr has said that states should be able to set their own policies for health care, and supported the concept of work requirements for benefits, saying it could help recipients "achieve self-sufficiency." McGrath is against work requirements. "I value encouraging people to work, if they are able, but I fail to see why we are linking that to having health care," she said to Lex18, a local NBC affiliate. "We can't punish those who need assistance as a cruel way to cut the state budget." Currently, Kentucky’s Medicaid program does not have job requirements. McGrath’s opposition to Kentucky HEALTH does not necessarily mean she wants to expand Medicaid to cover more people, or to make easier for those without jobs to receive insurance, as the ad claims. Instead, she supports the status quo: providing Medicaid to low-income Kentuckians, even those without jobs. Farm tax, food stamps The Congressional Leadership Fund also pointed us to the 2018 farm bill, which included new regulations for food stamps, known as SNAP. Under the initial draft of the bill, SNAP recipients would be required to work or do job training at least 20 hours per week. The farm bill has not yet become law. The version with work requirements was passed by the House in June 2018. The Senate passed their version just a week later, but they removed the controversial work requirements. McGrath, who by this point had retired from teaching at the Naval Academy to campaign full-time, tweeted a critique of the work requirements, saying they "would take away SNAP assistance to thousands of veterans and active duty military families who rely on these benefits." See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com Andrew S. London, professor of sociology at Syracuse University, studies the relationship between SNAP benefits and the military. He said there is support for McGrath’s notion that a work requirement might lead to reduced benefits going to a subpopulation of veterans. "Our research suggests that SNAP use among veterans and reserve/guard who are either unemployed or not in the labor force is substantial," he said. Much like the Medicaid debate, McGrath isn’t pushing for more welfare for unemployed Americans. Instead, she wants to keep eligibility requirements as they currently are, allowing many people — including unemployed veterans — to keep their benefits. Our ruling An ad by the Congressional Leadership Fund says that McGrath "wants to fund more welfare for people who can work, but don’t." This is exaggerated, and it hinges on the use of "more" to create a deceptive picture about her position. McGrath spoke out against the Kentucky HEALTH plan, which would have required Medicaid recipients to work or do community service in order to receive benefits. She also objected to the House version of the 2018 farm bill, which would have imposed stricter work requirements on SNAP recipients. However, in both instances, McGrath hasn’t called for more welfare. Rather, she opposes imposing work requirements and disqualifying some current recipients. McGrath has said she wants to keep the status quo on welfare, not to increase it or make it easier for people not to work. The statement is partially accurate. We rate it Half True. See Figure 2 on PolitiFact.com
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