Jon Husted tells struggling Ohioans to fix their ‘work ethic’

Republican Sen. Jon Husted said that Ohioans struggling to put food on the table may lack the work ethic needed to improve their situation.

He made the remark during a Jan. 16 interview with WOWO radio in Fort Wayne. He was discussing the Upward Mobility Act, a bill he authored that would empower some states to impose stricter work requirements on public assistance recipients.

Host Kayala Blakeslee asked Husted why the bill is necessary.

“Our work ethic is broken,” Husted said. “We don’t have the work ethic in this country that we once had, and we literally have the federal government telling people we will give you more money if you stay home than if you go to work. That’s crazy.”

Husted added that the federal government is “subsidizing people to stay home” and said his bill would encourage people on public assistance to work harder and become “self-sufficient.”

Currently, federal law limits the work requirements states can impose on federal programs like SNAP. The Upward Mobility Act would create a pilot program where five states, including Ohio, could bypass those limits and restructure how public funds are disbursed.

Husted claims the bill fixes the so-called “benefits cliff,” where a small increase in a low-income worker’s salary can render them ineligible for some public assistance. He says the bill will allow people to keep receiving benefits past the cliff by tapering down the assistance they receive.

Policy Matters Ohio told WLWT that this characterization is misleading, and that many people will immediately lose their benefits if states are given the leeway to curtail them.

“Removing oversight and accountability for how our federal tax dollars are spent is moving in the wrong direction,” said executive director Hannah Halbert. “I fear this is using the real, if sometimes overstated concept of benefit cliffs to promote old strategies to deregulate and eventually defund popular public benefit programs.”

Husted’s remarks echo previous comments in which he advised Ohioans struggling with affordability to “earn more” and claimed rising costs were mostly a problem in blue states.

Husted was appointed to the Senate last year to fill the vacancy created by Vice President J.D. Vance. He is running for his first full term in 2026. His likely Democratic opponent is former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Brown expressed disgust over Husted’s comments.

“From Toledo to Youngstown to Cincinnati, hardworking Ohioans are desperate for a leader who will fight for them,” Brown said in a statement. “Jon Husted should spend more time listening to the challenges they’re facing instead of blaming them.”