Welfare Reform : Promoting Personal Responsibility And Serving The Needs Of The Poorintroductionduring Bill Clinton

People generally enjoy working and being productive members of society. The positive effects of the Welfare Reform Act is moving to eventually end poverty in America and promote economic growth. According to the 2005 report measuring welfare dependents “Poverty in 2003 remains much lower than in 1996, the year of passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The official poverty rate for 2003 was 12.5 percent, compared to 13.7 percent in 1996.” ( Gil Crouse, Susan Hauan, Julia Isaacs, Kendall Swenson and Lisa Trivits, 2005 ) States that design welfare-to-work policies that emphasized getting recipients into jobs by shifting to “work-first” welfare systems can modify program rules to allow more earned income,

The social welfare system in the United States can be a controversial topic especially now with the new presidential elect. For this paper I was assigned to look into two different peoples perceptions and attitudes on the social welfare system. I looked into how they perceived the system and whom they believed benefits from this system. Throughout this paper the identities of the two people I interviewed will not be revealed. I will simply refer to them in pronouns. My goal during this interview was not to educate my two interviewees so some of the information contained in this paper may not be accurate. Throughout this paper the two interviewees opinions will be stated and their opinions will then be compared and discussed. Although the whole population of the United States is experiencing the same welfare system each individual perceives and has different beliefs about the system.

Welfare, enacted by one of the greatest presidents of the United States’s existence, Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, is an effective and useful means to assist American families in need. Throughout history, welfare has proven to help people get back on their feet and into society. Despite the system’s many useful benefits, like most attributes in this world, welfare has kinks in the system. In fact, welfare has yet to be perfected, even though it was established in the year of 1935 and is still in use today. The system may never be perfected, but it can be improved. There are many different thoughts and ideas pertaining to how welfare should change. Some believe it should be eliminated entirely. In doing so, many people all across the nation would be harmed in financial and mental manners. How can welfare be reformed? Is it even possible? The answer is absolutely. It must be reformed, and many would agree on the matter. It is, however, a sensitive and controversial topic to most. Political parties tend to take interest in the discussion of welfare reform, as well. The typical, left-wing Democrat wishes to give more to welfare users, while the standard right-wing Republican would like to decrease what is given to Americans. If everything has its imperfections, why should welfare be reformed? Why not leave it the way it is and let the government figure out the fine print? There are those that take this sort of stance on welfare reform, and there are some that believe differently.

U.S. Welfare started as a federally funded program in the 1930’s during the Great Depression to help aid those families and individuals who had little to no income. The Federal Government was in charge of the U.S. welfare system for sixty years, until the 1990’s when there was an uproar of Americans who were unsatisfied with the way the Federal Government was handling those who were receiving government aid. Many Americans believed that these individuals were abusing the welfare program by “not applying for jobs, having more children just to get more aid, and staying unmarried so as to qualify for benefits.” (Welfareinfo, 2016) In 1996, the states were handed control of the welfare system due to the passed reform law signed by President Bill Clinton.

Welfare is a form of public aid where the citizens are provided with a minimal level of social support and well-being. In developed countries, such as the United States of America, welfare is mainly offered by the government, other providers include religious groups, informal social groups, charities, and inter-governmental organizations. The politics of welfare is a governmental concept where the state plays a major role in protecting and promoting the social and the economic well-being of its citizens without racial discrimination to form what is known as a welfare state. The welfare state operates on the principles of equitable distribution of wealth, equality of opportunities, and public responsibility towards those unable to meet a good

Bill Clinton was on of the best presidents of all time. Mr. Clinton did a great job in supporting our neighborhood police force. The crime rate during his presidency was very low. President Clinton signed a bill that kept assault weapons out of the hands of the wrong individuals. Which created a low forty percent drop in crime in 2001. President Clinton was the inventor of the three-strike law. The law gave criminals three time to commit a crime but after the third time they were going to incarcerated for numerous years. I would say that is very well needed today. Mr. Clinton also opened doors to correcting our environment issues. President Clinton also implemented welfare reform. I think this was amazing. Helping citizens to get off welfare

     Welfare is a means of financial assistant for poverty stricken individuals. Year after year presidents have attempted to reconstruct the welfare system so it does not act as a backbone for those who do not want to work, and year after year success seemed out of reach. That is, until President Bill Clinton thought he had the answer. He signed the new welfare reform act in August of 1996, vowing to “end welfare as we know it.” Terminating a 62 year-old federal entitlement, President Clinton put a limit on how long one can receive federal welfare assistance (Casse 36). Yet, this so called reform is not that at all. The government doesn’t see what happens to ex-welfare recipients after they

The call to reform the welfare system of President Clinton has been heard but though faced with numerous hurdles and bureaucracy, the welfare reform is a relative success. After rejecting the two previous reforms concocted by the Republican-controlled Congress, the House and Senate came back with a third bill that President Clinton adamantly signed even after fair warnings that it could cost him the 1996 election. Nevertheless, the president was quoted as saying that signing the bill was a “historic opportunity to do what is right”.

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.

“Welfare epitomizes America’s basic bargain, providing opportunity and in return, demanding responsibility” (Clinton). When President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted Welfare in 1966, it was a system envisioned to be an aide for the common man; a support structure that would prevent financial disasters for the individual. Since that time, Welfare has been reformed, deformed, and become abused by the very people it was created to empower. Welfare has been manipulated into a way of life for over 40 million Americans through outrageous benefits and unearned paychecks being supplied at an endless rate. This issue harms not only the economy as a whole, but also the individuals who receive such benefits. Welfare checks have become free handouts to

Welfare reform sparked a great deal of interest in the 1990’s when President Clinton called together a speech calling for dramatic changes to the welfare policy. In his speech he stated “No one who works full-time and has children at home should be poor anymore. No one who can work should

Welfare and welfare reform has been a hot topic amongst politicians and their constituents for years. Feeling the pressure brought on by people crying out for welfare reform President Clinton brought about some changes in our welfare system. Prior to President Clinton’s sweeping reforms this is not the first time that the whole idea of welfare has come under fire; former California governor Wilson, was a strong opponent of welfare. It was he, along with many other people, which really were the ones to spark the welfare reform that President Clinton enacted. These people believed that welfare does not solve anything, it is just letting people become reliant on the government; sucking up money and valuable resources that could be spent

Before President Clinton’s vow to reform welfare, there were a series of changes happening within the United States that led to welfare’s policy change. Welfare originally was implemented to increase labor participation among public assistance recipients. The implementation of Welfare in the 1930s represented a shift from the United States protectionist legacy institutionalized in U.S. social welfare policy from the inception of “mother’s pension” beginning in the early 19th century. On top of that recipients of welfare were no longer widowed, now individuals seeking welfare were also categorized as separated, divorced or never married (Cherlin). The United States populous also began to become less and less sympathetic towards those on welfare.

Welfare: handouts to the lazy, or a helping hand to those facing hard times? The debate continues, even in the face of sweeping welfare reform, which, for all of its sound and fury, has not helped or changed much. What's wrong with welfare and how can we fix it? This is not a simple question, and there is no simple answer. However, one thing remains eminently clear. Welfare desperately needs to change. But where are we now? Are we headed backward or forward? Does anybody even care? To answer these questions, we must catch a glimpse of the world of welfare.

The role of welfare within our society has always been controversial. This problem emphasizes the need to understand the roles of variable factors when pertaining to the subject of welfare within our society. The proposed analysis will address the phenomenon of welfare assistance and several factors which may contribute to the increase or decrease of welfare assistance to the poor in 4 ways: (1) by defining major concepts and any other concepts about which there is likely to be misunderstanding, (2) by further examining the past history pertaining to the subject of welfare assistance within the United States, (3) by developing the formulation of