Welfare Reform

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Recommended: United States welfare system and its effects

Many have argued and debated about a systematical program called welfare. Some perceive it as dead weight to our nation and they question whether the programs offered are helping the community. As taxpayer's, the American populous funds contribute to welfare for others. Due to the large number of people who receive government assistance, it is not that simple to monitor every individual. However, I propose that welfare should be reformed. Society is abusing the access to social welfare and to prevent the downfall sure to come, the government needs to reform the accessibility and ownership of welfare because it betrays its creation; it is creating a dependent nation, and affects taxpayers and people who truly need government assistance.

The federal government’s welfare program in the United States was made to assist the unemployed or underemployed. The poor were the benefactors of the many government welfare programs, like Medicaid and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).# In the past, the United States followed British poor Laws. This means a division between those who were unable to work because of age or physical health and those who were able but unemployed. The physically unable received free forms of help from the government and those unemployed were given service employment in workhouses.# throughout welfare history, there were attempts to reform how the government dealt with the poor. After the Great Depression hit, many families struggled to survive during the depression. These families suffered most importantly financially, so welfare programs were created to solve those problems temporarily. #

Some have viewed the program as being a success, but others see it as the creation of a dependent nation. After Rooseve...

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...ide, Cynthia. Office of Government Relations, National Association of Social Workers, "PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND WORK OPPORTUNITY RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1996." Accessed November 12, 2011. http://www.socialworkers.org/advocacy/welfare/legislation/summary.pdf.

beach, william. the heritage foundation, "2009 index of dependence on government." Last modified march 4, 2010. Accessed November 12, 2011. :http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/03/the-2009-index-of-dependence-on-government .

Burke, Vee. Congressional Research Service, "Welfare reform:an issue overview." Last modified october 8, 2002. Accessed November 12, 2011. http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/archive/crs_welfare.shtml .

Westfall, Joseph. Santa Clara University, "the welfare of the community." Accessed November 12, 2011. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v8n3/welfare.html.

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