Arguing to restrict welfare eligibility in Maine is a non-starter, especially in tough economic times when more people would need benefits most.

Even more, when legislation to do so, like what was heard in Augusta last week from Reps. L. Gary Knight of Livermore and Rich Cebra of Naples, offers constitutionally and factually shaky ideas – like stiffer residency requirements – as a solution for accountability.

There are plenty of real problems with welfare programs, like MaineCare, to address without going down this path of residency again. Some people think Maine is a beacon for unsavory layabouts who only want to live off the public dole. Facts say otherwise – state data shows more people on assistance programs are leaving Maine than arriving.

That’s the end of that argument.

Plus, it is unthinkable to say if a person needs assistance for food or health care, an arbitrary time limit in Maine is a qualifier. Benefits must be delivered on the basis of need, not duration. This may not agree with some politically, but it is the right, compassionate thing to do.

This said, there should be no free lunches, either.

Reps. Knight and Cebra are right about the negative public perception of welfare as being unaccountable. There is proven fraud in the system that costs taxpayers billions every year.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama’s new nominee to run the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, testified in the U.S. Senate about her “strike first” approach to fighting fraud in programs like Medicaid and Medicare.

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” she told the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, according to The Associated Press. “I intend to take this very seriously.”

She’d better. On the federal level, it is estimated that an astounding $70 billion is lost each year to Medicare and Medicaid fraud. In 2007 alone, states recovered some $1.1 billion in fraudulent Medicaid payments and secured 1,205 convictions for it, according to the Medicaid fraud division of the federal DHHS Office of the Inspector General.

In Maine in 2002, this state’s Medicaid fraud unit recovered more than $1 million, a great ratio, considering the expense for the department was $360,000. (The group that investigates MaineCare fraud, the Attorney General’s Healthcare Crimes Unit, is federally funded.)

This shows rooting out fraud pays for itself, another good reason it should be done.

Lack of accountability in welfare programs is not a myth; yet pushing policies like residency requirements, which are essentially based on myths, is unhelpful. Making benefits more difficult to attain does little to address and mitigate the fraud that is known to plague the system.

Sebelius is pledging to do that in Washington. This approach also sounds right for Augusta.