When I hear people complaining about government welfare, my immediate question to them is "what government program are you talking about?" There are many federal programs that can be considered welfare; for example Medicare Part D is welfare for the pharmaceutical industry. Every single time I have asked that question, the person is unable to name the federal program they are talking about. Food stamps? Not really welfare. They are in-kind benefits that are intended as a counterciclical economic program more than anything else. What people usually talk about is a program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF. Contrary to perceptions of an out of control welfare state, the annual TANF appropriation was capped at $16 billion dollars in 1996, and has stayed the same since. It is available only to those who are working or engaged in "work like activities." Although TANF checks are small, the program is very effective at eliminating extreme poverty. No one on TANF is living a life of luxury, contrary to Ronald Reagan's Alzheimered rants on the subject.
TANF makes an investment in a more stable and productive workforce. This is something we should all want for our country. The fact is a majority of welfare recipients are single women with children, foster children, or children being raised by aunts/uncles or grandparents. Hardly creating a "culture of dependency", TANF benefits, even small ones, can give children and their families the stability they need to be more productive in the future. As any parent will tell you, an investment made into a child is the best one possible. It has the best bang for the buck.
TANF makes an investment in a more stable and productive workforce. This is something we should all want for our country. The fact is a majority of welfare recipients are single women with children, foster children, or children being raised by aunts/uncles or grandparents. Hardly creating a "culture of dependency", TANF benefits, even small ones, can give children and their families the stability they need to be more productive in the future. As any parent will tell you, an investment made into a child is the best one possible. It has the best bang for the buck.
So I’m proud to live in a country that provides poor and middle income children and their families with some supplemental income, some food assistance, access to early childhood education, reduced school lunch. What could be better for a child than food and books? This is really common sense, and all the science agrees. Research shows that children raised poor are more likely than not to stay poor, and those that are in families that receive assistance do significantly better than those that don’t.
And we only spend 16 billion on the federal level and another 15 or so from all the states put together. This is 30 billion, or about 1/500th of America’s GDP. So when Repubs say that 1/500th of our nations wealth that is invested in poor children is too much, that we need to cut, and cut, and cut spending, and add eligibility requirements; that is a cruelty that I simply cannot comprehend. And for what? To get savings maybe totaling the cost of a dozen F-22 fighter jets? Just allowing that thought to cross my mind sends chills down my spine. Is that really where we are as a country? That we are considering cutting these crucial programs? Nothing could be more penny wise and pound foolish.