The Benefits Of Providing Welfare

Welfare is a greatly debatable topic in the United States , for more than 52.2 million Americans are currently on the welfare system. Many of them take advantage of this government benefit. The government believes that welfare helps and aids the citizens of the U.S, yet what most people do is take advantage of tax payers money. I disagree with welfare for the reason that people abuse and become dependent on the system.

All throughout history welfare services have been available to the general public. While these benefits have changed over time, the basic intentions of the welfare system has stayed the same. The welfare system provides benefits and monetary assistance to those who qualify. Different acts over the past two hundred years have been amended in order to try to help the poor, and while not all have been practical and successful, many programs have indeed done an outstanding job in aiding those in need. But, just like with all good things, there is a negative side. Even with all the reforms to try perfect the welfare system there are still some holes in it. Not only is the welfare system easy to manipulate, according to usgovernmentspending.com, eleven percent of the federal budget is spent on welfare, leaving tax payers livid. (usgovspending.com) It 's obvious there is a need for a welfare system in the United States, but with the abuse the welfare system has endured a major change needs to be seen in order to ensure the welfare system be used as efficiently as possible.

What would happen if the government made changes to the welfare system? There are approximately 110,489,000 of Americans on welfare. Many people benefit from what the system has to offer: food stamps, housing, health insurance, day care, and unemployment. Taxpayers often argue that the individuals who benefit from the system, abuse the system; however, this is not entirely true. Many of the people who receive benefits really and truly need the help. Even though some people believe welfare should be reformed, welfare should not be reformed because 40% of single mothers are poor, some elderly people do not have a support system, and college students can not afford to take extra loans.

Welfare officially started after the Great Depression in the 1930s. On top of guaranteed cash payments to the poor, monthly benefits were given out to single mothers and children regardless of their ability to work, assets on hand, or personal circumstances. There was also no time limit on the welfare program. Once accepted, people could stay on welfare for their entire lives. In the 1990s, public opinion had turned strongly against the old welfare system. The welfare system included no incentive for recipients to seek employment. More people enrolled in welfare because they wanted the support, rather than needed it. The system was viewed as rewarding, and it made poverty rates and welfare enrollments rise. It was in 1996 that the government realized they needed to make a change.’

Throughout modern human history there has been an ongoing struggle of whether to help the poor and how to help them. In today’s political scene in the US mostly only extremely staunch conservatives feel that we should offer no aid to the poor of America. So, then the argument becomes how to best help them. Welfare is widely considered to be the main way that America helps the poor. So what is welfare exactly? Welfare can be defined as aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need distributed through an agency or program. In general liberals feel that America should offer a large amount of aid and pull people out of debt with government funds while still trying to get them back to work. In general conservatives feel that the poor should have to already have a job before we help them and many also call for drug testing before offering assistance. To try to create these scenarios, parties use welfare reform. Welfare reform is a bill that alters the current program so that it operates in a different way. The most recent welfare reform was in 1996 by Bill Clinton and was called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. This act in general aimed to hand over

Reforming the welfare system was first initiated by Bill Clinton in 1996, by keeping a promise “to end welfare as we know it.” Between the years of 1989 and 1994, there had been a 33% increase in the number of households receiving welfare. Originally, these provisions of reform were implemented as a strategy to increase labor market production among public assistance recipients. Many held the belief that those receiving welfare had become too dependent on public assistance. It was suggested that welfare discouraged those receiving benefits from working. Becoming employed would mean losing benefits, while also incurring an array of expenses that were typically covered through public assistance, such as health insurance. As dependency became a primary concern, fundamental reform rooted itself into the minds of the working-class. Although, the idea of getting rid of welfare as a whole was unpopular, the belief that those in need were being discouraged from employment through what was often referred to as “the welfare trap” called for reformation within the system.

While welfare funding can be very beneficial to those in need of financial aid, the system is also frequently abused. People who do not actually need the extra help have found ways to use the system to their advantage, and since federal aid is funded by taxes, this misuse directly affects all taxpayers. Therefore, I believe there should be no changes made to welfare funding within the states until the huge problems in the system have been

The American government does many things for America and its people. The provide people whose income is low, are just not financially stable enough with welfare. They regulate our transportation systems, overlook retirement and social security funds and also deal with foster care. Another thing the government does is deal with our department of defense and regulate all military branches. I believe that the government should help the people of America to a certain extent, but not so much that the people being helped rely solely on the government’s help.

There has been much speculation over the past years as to whether Welfare is even necessary, and with the large list of people who benefit from it growing every day, the answer some state legislatures give is not eliminating Welfare, but rather tweaking the rules a little bit. This all started in 2011, it was proposed at the Florida, Missouri and Arizona State Legislature. These state legislatures proposed for the people who receive Welfare be tested on a regular basis. (Finzel) I believe that although it may seem like a morally great idea, it is something difficult to accomplish; considering all of the people on Welfare that would have to be tested and the money that would go into them being tested. Not just that, the children that would be affected if their parents failed the test. Taking that all into consideration puts me on the fence with this issue.

“This, by the way, is the welfare state in action: It’s a whole bunch of special interest groups screwing consumers and taxpayers, and making them think they're really benefiting” (Murray Rothbard).

The Welfare System’s Desperate Need for an Overhaul According to census.gov, 21.3 percent of people in the United States took part in the use of welfare programs each month in 2012 (Virginia Hyer, 2015). Even though the heart of the welfare system is genuine and pure, the heart of the most promising nation in the world has ultimately become too lazy to live a fulfilling life and dependent on the hard work of others to provide its needs. “The land of opportunity” has lost its passion; instead of chasing dreams and success, our nation seeks the easy way out of nearly every task especially in the workforce. Everyone wants to live a promising, financially stable life, but no one wants to work for it.

Welfare programs like Social Security, Medicare, SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid, do cost the federal government billions of dollars. Clearly cutting costs to these programs would be the best way to save money and or put it elsewhere. However, the programs that cost us the most (Social Security and Medicare) are untouchable while SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid are not. The agreement against these programs is that they cost too much and are abused by those who use it. If it is true that people abuse it then it is clear that funding needs to be cut and the abusers punished. Many believe these programs should be stricter and should focus on helping people get jobs instead of encouraging them to not get jobs. Overall those against welfare programs don’t want

The government has compromised our security and general welfare on several different occasions. They have done this not only in many different occasions, but in several different ways including through our U.S postal service, threw threatening memos and letters, and by violating our amendment rights. However, some of these acts are unnecessary, but some of them have their reasons and benefits.

Even with the careful planning of the new program, there are still doubters that the TANF will actually work. The introduction of TANF was a way to encourage families to employment while receiving assistance. Though the program showed much promise, there are still growing concerns that some families are worse off as results of time limits. Before 1996, adults with problems could stay on welfare for years without having to meet any work or training requirements. But because of the new law, these families have been subjected to such requirements and some simply could not meet them.

In today’s modern society, the United States faces many public policy issues, whether those issues include social welfare, immigration or even environmental issues. Congress receives numerous issues on public polices every day, but they cannot handle and solve every issues that comes across their daily agenda, nor can they satisfy every person in this country. Congress prioritizes on those issues that are more important and relevant to find a probable solution too. A growing issue we see that in today’s society are issues in the social welfare system. Social Welfare has so many issues within some of those issues include the food stamps, and even in the healthcare system. The matters in social welfare requires every individuals help to resolve, not just congress. The second major public policy issue we face in American today are within the Public Assistance Programs. Those programs include the SNAP, SSI, and even the TANF program.