ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Fresh from his re-election in the deep-blue state of Maine, Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, is carrying through with his election promise to make sure the state doesn’t indiscriminately hand out free stuff to the unworthy. Able-bodied adults can receive food-stamp assistance only if they try to work, at least part-time. It’s a common-sense plan that ought to inspire other governors.

“People who are in need deserve a hand up,” he says, “but we should not be giving able-bodied individuals a handout. … We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient.”

Work requirements are nothing new. Republicans and Democrats worked together to put it in place in the 1996 Clinton-era welfare-reform law. President Obama ruined this bipartisan compromise in his stimulus bill, distributing an “information memorandum” making it clear that the administration would approve any state’s request for a waiver. Maine won’t seek a waiver, and able-bodied food-stamp recipients between the ages of 18 and 49 will have to work at least 20 hours a week or perform volunteer service to get the benefit. This affects about 12,000 current beneficiaries who collect $15 million in free stuff every year.

This was one of the campaign’s major issues, with Rep. Michael Michaud, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, trying to straddle the issue. An independent candidate supported Mr. LePage’s requirement as “the right thing to do.”

The governor knows a thing or two about hard work. The oldest of 18 children in a French-Canadian family who learned English as a second language, he fled an abusive father at age 11 and lived on the streets for a time. He worked his way through school and became a successful businessman. He won a seat on the Waterville City Council and later the first of two terms as mayor of Waterville, population 15,000.

“There is no excuse for able-bodied adults to spend a lifetime on welfare,” he told the Maine Legislature in his State of the State address in February, “at the expense of hard-working, struggling Mainers.”

This is true for every other state as well. The Congressional Research Service calculates that almost 4 million welfare recipients fall into the category of the able-bodied with no dependents, about 10 percent of the welfare rolls. At a cost of $76 billion a year, even shaving a small slice of wasted compassion can lead to big savings.

The safety net is necessary in a compassionate nation like ours, but the net must not become a hammock for the indolent. Once upon a time, an election night adage held that “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” This adage should apply to Mr. LePage’s worthy welfare example.

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