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Beshear: "These work requirements really aren't getting people back to work. They are about increasing the paperwork on everybody ... when somebody misses that one box, they are kicked off for six months or more."

If Democrats got on board with the no more work requirements or means-testing train, that would be great. That means universal programs like UBI and M4A and that's the way to go. Just tax those with higher incomes more.

Oh, so if we want to give $1,000 to a poor person every month, we have to give the same to a rich person every month. GOP has used means testing to throw people off benefits, but it doesn’t have to be used that way. Medicaid, fuel assistance, etc. are means tested and help society.

Your “just tax them later” means the government is required to give trillions in interest-free loans to rich people every year. And how about we tax rich people at all? Pass a wealth tax first before you advocate more government payments to the wealthy

I don't care at all how the rich people feel about it. UBI's same-to-all causes real problems. The first problem is it means not giving the poorest people enough to live on: someone who is poor who could have gotten $5,000 instead got $1,000 so that we could also pay four people who aren't poor.

The second problem is that it is a choice that makes wealth inequality worse compared to the alternative: we could have done more to reduce inequality by paying less to wealthier people, instead we chose to pay them just as much.

Third, the cost of the program is much higher: if you can eliminate the wealthiest third from an equal benefit, the program costs 33% less; if you can make it progressive, it can cost far less than that.