SARA ROSENBUAM:

In fact the unemployment rates as you point out are historically low. The vast majority of poor people work, look for work. The nature of of labor in a low wage market, which is where low income adults are obviously, is that it comes in cycles, you may get more hours, you may get fewer hours, you may be called in for a time or get laid off for a while, you may be a seasonal worker. And so, there's a normal fluctuating to and fro and any effort that can be made to help people who are in low wage jobs, who need skills training, who need help finding work is a wonderful thing. And the results of voluntary work programs are actually quite strong.

What is a real head scratcher here, from a policy point of view, is why you would ever threaten people's health insurance coverage for this, When there is no evidence in fact that more than the smallest handful of low income people just don't work and don't want to work and have no reason not to work. To put at risk people's coverage simply because they can't report in their monthly hours clocked at work, when in fact there's a tiny handful of people who, you know, are that proverbial needles in the haystack is I think what makes the whole enterprise so irrational and frankly so inhumane.