Trump's 2020 budget deemed cruel over welfare reform

President Trump’s 2020 budget caused a stir from critics over a welfare reform proposal requiring people to work in exchange for welfare benefits.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the proposal, “cruel and shortsighted…a roadmap to a sicker, weaker America.”

The Trump administration’s third budget proposal, titled “A Budget for a Better America: Promises Kept. Taxpayers First,” would require applicants between the ages of 18 and 65 and who are physically able, to work a minimum of 20 hours per week or to be enrolled in job training or community service, before they can receive welfare benefits like food stamps, housing assistance or Medicaid.

“Nancy Pelosi would have us believe this is some kind of evil, cold-hearted, right wing plot,” Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock said during an interview on “Making Money with Charles Payne” Tuesday. “This is something that goes back to the Clinton era, this is something the new democrats believed in in the 1990’s.”

Former President Bill Clinton signed in to law what was considered a major welfare reform in The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

Murdock says the president’s plan would allow “some level of dignity, it allows you to get the skills to go back to work and reduce the incentive for people just to stay home and get checks and possibly cheat the system.”

Trump’s proposal would require congressional approval in order to pass, traditionally a rare occurrence for presidential budgets.