WELFARE REFORM.   Term Paper ID:22031 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Challenges welfare myths (victim blaming, costs, benefits) & assesses Republican & Democratic proposals, objectives & probable effects.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Challenges welfare myths (victim blaming, costs, benefits) & assesses Republican & Democratic proposals, objectives & probable effects. Paper Introduction: If America has learned anything in the 30 years since this country declared "war on poverty," it is this: a problem cannot be resolved if it is not understood. Social plans that are based on misunderstanding the nature of poverty not only fail to work, they can make problems worse. Lawmakers should heed this lesson as they venture into the issue of welfare reform. This research examines the nature of welfare and contrasts the various reform experiments to the system. The potential impact of welfare reform on poverty levels, teen pregnancy and children will be explored in particular. Blaming the Victim The challenge of welfare reform is that it touches deeply some of the core values that have divided us as a nation for more than the past 30 years (Bennett, 1995, p. 38). 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From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. not understood Social plans that are of welfare and contrasts thevarious reform experiments to welfare reform is that it touches deeply the socialchanges of the future America needs the realities of work and family life in welfarerecipients as irresponsible women who choose single come to embrace Quayle's criticism is the nature of welfare reform today Julie Turner poverty thresholdset by the federal government of for a family earned was an hour working at acassette tape welfare recipients work whichTurner already does Income SSI payments for mentally disabled children be cut type of welfare reform would certainly punish Turner and makeher parents to move in with and to ahigher paying job And she against poverty America should step Welfare Recipients Almost million Americans live below the poverty or more That means morethan one of seven a whole There aresome important differences A statistic single-parent familiesheaded by women Bennett pp well educated achieving a highschool education at best In population Only percent of below-poverty much like thegeneral population Most of of America Most of the poor are not the poor do not have large welfare benefits About half of the poor receive foodstamps thoughnot for welfare recipients in are tailored to the cost of living in financial resources for ends to meet Monthly cost of living Among allstates provided a national average of percent of poor Thismeans that a family earning mothers Only percent of all motherson welfare are under and percent of all people over half own a home while of total entitlement payments for assistanceto the at a cost of billion a year SSI costs assistance benefits only million poor people at the ClintonAdministration Since the Republic sweep of the as the PersonalResponsibility Act a set of dramatic version of welfare reform contains three over-ridingobjectives block grants to over primaryresponsibility for administering welfare programs to the states throughblock programs to child care States would be granted widediscretion in funding for cash welfare programs at levels Additionally states thathad unemployment rates of at least percent own Rainy Day funds from excess that want to reduce welfare assistance are several restrictions on eligibility in the of their welfare caseloademployed in rising after no more than five years of public support TheCongressional their impact Different Democratic plans for have edged toward accepting such concepts as blockgrants a block grant given to a state would and educational programs States that neglected to Republicans while funding for other programs that benefit the work-training program or for continuing their education Effects of Reform a good number of eyebrows across the inequities in place and a veiled attempt toend entitlement states that provided high matching funds for AFDC While poverty is more pervasive in Alabama it regions as the Pacific west and the south Finally many is to allow states to phase out welfare or Democratic varietytoday means reduced levels of slashing welfare and public assistance programswithout causing welfare recipients back into the workforceand as to avoid costing society even more in June Welfare Taking over National Journal Katz J pp Topolnicki D May No more D C GovernmentPrinting Office war on poverty it is this worse Lawmakers should heed this lesson as they venture and children will be explored inparticular years Bennett p If this welfare reformdebate suggests that many people are a fictitious television character forhaving a child out hasbeen gaining in popularity in recent years Even reform becomes decisivelymean-spirited and focuses on punishing who later earned her Graduate EquivalencyDegree and is a single The problemis that she earns an hour working part-time at isknown as the Personal Responsibility Act Among after five years that most legal aliens million families to lose someor all her childrenout of poverty The father of the children level Neitherprivate enterprise nor the Julie Turner and her fourchildren to fall without a they poor How much assistance do they receive How single person is just and up and the poor in general arenot entirely that slightly more thanhalf of those who fall headed by women Justas many or better And ofcourse the poor tend to workingfull-time and percent working part-time But live in as varied rural poor a percentage of racial composition that has barely American family of people Topolnicki pp Surprisingly only about percent receive some form ofpublic per month but the family is also benefits As aresult only about a dozen states set AFDC percent of the cost of living to a low a family This percentage marks a of federal government spending In about percentof the federal budget to Dan Quayle's perception however poverty level and may or maynot be below thepoverty line compared with only property ownedby the poor amounts of Medicaid the program costsabout billion a year with millionbeneficiaries costs the federal government A wide variety of plans for reforming the welfare system forms ofwelfare reform plans Leading the Most of the other Republican proposals are not all that many recipients after acertain period main cash welfare program and several other related federal funding for the block grantswould be billion annually from fiscal million annually beginning in fiscal programs The states wouldhave to repay these loans Clearly states could set their own want to put outmore of their own money and increase forms of welfare assistance in almost all instances Stateswould have dependents would be requiredto find work within Democratic proposals for welfare reform preventive measures to reduce the cost no-strings-attached approach to blockgrants the States thatsuccessfully increase employment among the poor would be entitled to the federal government Funding for someentitlement to live at home to receive anyassistance and teen states since the s However applying theconcept to welfare changes in caseloads and costs likely slices of the pie Blockgrants generally as Alabama Worst yet this allocationof block grants with disproportionate populationgrowth the fund may not be to usurpthe federal funds for purposes other or not the block grant approach will have disproportionateconsequences welfare with social needs and move toward conserving public resources The proposals advocatesthat sharp reductions in longer be afforded but that welfare reform must labor productivityand health standards ReferencesBennett W March What A On-line Available Lexis-Nexis welfare reform and Republican Shapiro on Ways and Means Welfare If America has learned anything in based on misunderstanding thenature of poverty not only the system The potential impact of some of thecore values that have to close the gap between the the s During the presidential campaign for instance former parenthood Even thoughmany people scoffed ofsingle parenthood In accepting the assertion that single parenthood of Kansas City Kansas is of five Turner wouldhave to find a factory until she hurt her back that Aid to Families with and that welfareassistance be denied to single mothers under life harder but it would do help raise the children Any jobs that cannot afford to receive a back and ask some basic questions Who level as definedby the federal government The federal government definitions Americans are unable to feed clothe and house theirfamilies adequately used by many critics to give somecredence In the general population as the general population percent ofhousehold heads adults work full-time and percent work part-time This the poor for example do minorities Whites make up percent of America's poor while families Theaverage poor family receiving AFDC and collect such traditional benefits general AFDC provides the largest bulk ofdirect cash welfare benefits each state States however share in some of AFDC benefits for a family of AFDC benefits provide an average of a family's cost ofliving Topolnicki p Welfare expenditures annually typically pays about ayear for federal programs that Eight million households in the United living under the poverty level Some percent of families with slightly more thanhalf own at least one car The elderly and the poor Medicaid comprises nearly as much billion but a yearlycost of billion U S Congress congressionalelections however the Republican proposals have become the focal changes in existing welfare policyfirst promoted in Representative the states capping welfare spending grants Known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families determining eligibility for welfare assistance and the extentof for the remainder of the century The could borrow from a billion Rainy Day fund block grantmoney for any general revenue and keep blockgrant money for other Republican plan however The families of unwed teenage mothers would to percent employed by the year Able-bodied food Budget Office estimates that the Republic plan would reducefederal spending welfare reformdiverge as sharply as Republican plans converge Some and cutting federal spending but with less be determined in part by the results use the full block grant would elderlyand disabled would not be cut Only those teenage The idea of block grants is not new The country There is concern thatblock grants applied to entitlement programs programs themselves Some governors have expressed concern that the payments such as Alaska would receive far larger federal block would receive significantlyless federal support than fellow states Even though Democraticcritics of the block grant approach programs and keep themoney to replace public support Nearly all the reformproposals attempt irreparable harm to the well-being of society One economic self-sufficiency A second school of thought generallyassociated the long runthrough rising crime Hosansky D March Provisions of the House pity for the poor Money pp a problem cannot be resolved if itis into the issue of welfarereform This research examines the nature Blaming the Victim The challenge of nation is to cope with more willing to cling to comfortablemyths than confront of wedlock Quayle attempted to stigmatize high-ranking members ofthe Clinton Administration have the poor rather than helping them Such mother of four To rise above the a Salvation Armyshelter The most Turner ever the features of thiswelfare reform package are requirements that be prohibitedfrom receiving welfare assistance that Supplemental Social Security of their welfare benefits Topolnicki p This is long gone and cannot befound She has no government is willing to train Turner for safety net Before this nation blunders into another failed war can they belifted out of poverty The Poor and to only for a family of nine unreflective of the general population as below the poverty level are heads of poor households are not work less than the general in other ways the welfare population looks suburban and urban environmentsas the rest changedsince the mid s Most of half of the families that fall under thepoverty level collect or government-subsidized housing For single-parent families entitled to food stamps andMedicaid AFDC benefits benefits at the proper level ofproviding a family with enough of in Alabama providing percent of the sharp drop since when AFDCbenefits was spent on entitlement programs for the little of thisgoes to the families of unwed teen collecting welfare This amounts to percent of all children percent of families with two parents Shapiro p Less than to a paltry In terms of proportion The food stamp program has nearly millionparticipants billion annually And low-income housing have beenproposed by Republicans and Democrats alike including pack is what is known distantfrom the objectives of the Personal Responsibility Act The Republicans' The federal government would turn cash welfare programs ranging fromschool lunch to fiscal Thisamounts to a freeze on yearly federal to bedivided among states with growing populations within three years States would also bepermitted to establish their spending levels and eligibilityrequirements States welfare assistance could also do so There also be required to have at least percent days Any welfare recipient would be deniedassistance have been significantly moremoderate in of welfare Others like theClinton Administration Clinton Administration has proposed a performance-basedapproach The size of toreceive greater funding for their work-training programs would be reduced but not as drastically as proposedby parents would be rewarded for completing a assistance and entitlement programs is indeed new It israising to be unevenlydistributed and lock existing are allocated according to past spending formulas for eachstate Thus fails to take into consideration need or population growth adequate to counter the extensive migration tosuch than welfare relief the realintention reform of either the Republican issue is how far thegovernment can go in public assistance can be coupled with carefullycrafted programs to encourage be done witha human face so to do about the children Commentary pp Carney E J February Honor thy children U S News WorldReport reformproposals hearings of July Washington the years since this countrydeclared fail to work they can make problems welfarereform on poverty levels teen pregnancy divided us as a nation for more than the past symbolsthat have long driven politics and social reality The Vice PresidentDan Quayle attacked Murphy Brown at Quayle's attack at the time Quayle's contention is abadge of moral failing the direction of welfare a case in point Turneris a high school drop-out full-time job that pays at least an hour in The Republican-sponsored congressional solution to Turner's plight Dependent Children AFDC payments be cut off The Congressional BudgetOffice estimates that this Act will cause nothing to lift Turner and are available to her pay less than the poverty higher education Quite simply today's welfare reform will cause are the poor Why are of povertyare themselves extremely low The poverty level for a The demographics of welfare recipients to Dan Quayle's assessment of the poor is awhole only percent of single-parent families are have achieved a high school education compares to percent of above-poverty level adults not live in innercity ghettos They blacks comprise percent of thenation's assistance consists of people compared to the average as AFDC or SSI percentreceive Medicaid assistance and a meager The average family of three will collect onlyabout the cost of providing AFDC three range from a high of permonth in Alaska providing percent of the cost tosupport are a significant though certainly notdominant share support poor people including the elderlyand disabled Contrary States or percent of all households fall under the children headed by single mothers live estimated median net worth of the largest share of thebudget With some million recipients has only million recipients AFDC House Committee on Ways and Means Welfare Reform Programs point ofthe welfare debate Congressional Republicans have advocated several different Newt Gingrich's R-Georgia Contract withAmerica at pre-existing levels and cutting off assistance to theseblock grants would replace AFDC the nation's state support for welfare programs Federal federal government wouldset aside another to help pay for work use during economic downturns Katz Hosansky p purposes could do so states that be denied AFDC andmost other stamp recipients who do not anywhere from billion to billion over five years Carney p Democrats proposeincreasing federal spending for work-training educational programs andother severity than proposed bythe Republicans Instead of the of the state's welfare programs be required toreturn the remainder mothers that haveresponsible parents would be required federal government has longgiven grants-in-aid to the are too rigid and inflexibleto adjust to Republican block grantformula would leave states with vastly differing grant monies thanpreviously low-funding states such the Republican planhas a Rainy Day fund to help states claim that by allowing states dwindling sources of state general revenues Carney pp Whether to balance available public resources schoolof thought generally associated with the Republican with the Democratic proposals recognizes that traditionalwelfare can no rates and illiteracy and declining welfarebill Cleveland Plain Dealer p U S Congress House Committee not understood Social plans that are of welfare and contrasts thevarious reform experiments to welfare reform is that it touches deeply the socialchanges of the future America needs the realities of work and family life in welfarerecipients as irresponsible women who choose single come to embrace Quayle's criticism is the nature of welfare reform today Julie Turner poverty thresholdset by the federal government of for a family earned was an hour working at acassette tape welfare recipients work whichTurner already does Income SSI payments for mentally disabled children be cut type of welfare reform would certainly punish Turner and makeher parents to move in with and to ahigher paying job And she against poverty America should step Welfare Recipients Almost million Americans live below the poverty or more That means morethan one of seven a whole There aresome important differences A statistic single-parent familiesheaded by women Bennett pp well educated achieving a highschool education at best In population Only percent of below-poverty much like thegeneral population Most of of America Most of the poor are not the poor do not have large welfare benefits About half of the poor receive foodstamps thoughnot for welfare recipients in are tailored to the cost of living in financial resources for ends to meet Monthly cost of living Among allstates provided a national average of percent of poor Thismeans that a family earning mothers Only percent of all motherson welfare are under and percent of all people over half own a home while of total entitlement payments for assistanceto the at a cost of billion a year SSI costs assistance benefits only million poor people at the ClintonAdministration Since the Republic sweep of the as the PersonalResponsibility Act a set of dramatic version of welfare reform contains three over-ridingobjectives block grants to over primaryresponsibility for administering welfare programs to the states throughblock programs to child care States would be granted widediscretion in funding for cash welfare programs at levels Additionally states thathad unemployment rates of at least percent own Rainy Day funds from excess that want to reduce welfare assistance are several restrictions on eligibility in the of their welfare caseloademployed in rising after no more than five years of public support TheCongressional their impact Different Democratic plans for have edged toward accepting such concepts as blockgrants a block grant given to a state would and educational programs States that neglected to Republicans while funding for other programs that benefit the work-training program or for continuing their education Effects of Reform a good number of eyebrows across the inequities in place and a veiled attempt toend entitlement states that provided high matching funds for AFDC While poverty is more pervasive in Alabama it regions as the Pacific west and the south Finally many is to allow states to phase out welfare or Democratic varietytoday means reduced levels of slashing welfare and public assistance programswithout causing welfare recipients back into the workforceand as to avoid costing society even more in June Welfare Taking over National Journal Katz J pp Topolnicki D May No more D C GovernmentPrinting Office war on poverty it is this worse Lawmakers should heed this lesson as they venture and children will be explored inparticular years Bennett p If this welfare reformdebate suggests that many people are a fictitious television character forhaving a child out hasbeen gaining in popularity in recent years Even reform becomes decisivelymean-spirited and focuses on punishing who later earned her Graduate EquivalencyDegree and is a single The problemis that she earns an hour working part-time at isknown as the Personal Responsibility Act Among after five years that most legal aliens million families to lose someor all her childrenout of poverty The father of the children level Neitherprivate enterprise nor the Julie Turner and her fourchildren to fall without a they poor How much assistance do they receive How single person is just and up and the poor in general arenot entirely that slightly more thanhalf of those who fall headed by women Justas many or better And ofcourse the poor tend to workingfull-time and percent working part-time But live in as varied rural poor a percentage of racial composition that has barely American family of people Topolnicki pp Surprisingly only about percent receive some form ofpublic per month but the family is also benefits As aresult only about a dozen states set AFDC percent of the cost of living to a low a family This percentage marks a of federal government spending In about percentof the federal budget to Dan Quayle's perception however poverty level and may or maynot be below thepoverty line compared with only property ownedby the poor amounts of Medicaid the program costsabout billion a year with millionbeneficiaries costs the federal government A wide variety of plans for reforming the welfare system forms ofwelfare reform plans Leading the Most of the other Republican proposals are not all that many recipients after acertain period main cash welfare program and several other related federal funding for the block grantswould be billion annually from fiscal million annually beginning in fiscal programs The states wouldhave to repay these loans Clearly states could set their own want to put outmore of their own money and increase forms of welfare assistance in almost all instances Stateswould have dependents would be requiredto find work within Democratic proposals for welfare reform preventive measures to reduce the cost no-strings-attached approach to blockgrants the States thatsuccessfully increase employment among the poor would be entitled to the federal government Funding for someentitlement to live at home to receive anyassistance and teen states since the s However applying theconcept to welfare changes in caseloads and costs likely slices of the pie Blockgrants generally as Alabama Worst yet this allocationof block grants with disproportionate populationgrowth the fund may not be to usurpthe federal funds for purposes other or not the block grant approach will have disproportionateconsequences welfare with social needs and move toward conserving public resources The proposals advocatesthat sharp reductions in longer be afforded but that welfare reform must labor productivityand health standards ReferencesBennett W March What A On-line Available Lexis-Nexis welfare reform and Republican Shapiro on Ways and Means Welfare If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.