The Vital Need for Welfare Reform

In 1935, the Aid to Dependent Children program was included in the Social Security Act. This cash grant program enabled States to aid needy children without fathers. Enacted during the Great Depression, this program was viewed as a way to stimulate economic recovery by keeping women with children out of the job market, thereby reducing the competition for the few jobs that were available. Although every Presidential administration since Truman has pledged to reform the welfare system, the system has remained basically unchanged since its beginning.

According to the Census Bureau statistics, there were 36.9 million poor people in the United States. Currently, about 5 million families or 14 million people rely on AFDC. The typical welfare package of cash, food stamps, and Medicaid is worth around $12,000 a year. Federal payments for AFDC are about $15 billion per year or about 1 percent of the Federal budget. Adding in food stamps and housing subsidies, the total Federal contribution comes to about 6 percent of the annual Federal budget.

If there is a lesson in the reform experience of the last 73 years, it could be that a new thinking and resolve about the goals and expectations of reform needs to be seriously considered, prior to embarking on the path to reform.

I believe that the key to welfare reform is not to reduce the availability of AFDC but to reduce the need for AFDC. Families, especially single-parent families, are forced to rely on AFDC because other systems fail; health care, child care, education, job training, job creation, and child support.

In fact, I believe that overhauling our child support system must be one of the first steps we take in order to reduce the need for public assistance. Of the $47 billion owed in child support each year, only $13 billion is collected, leaving $34 billion between what is owed and what is paid to support our children.

Welfare reform that works for taxpayers and recipients will require short-term investment for long-term results. We must craft a plan that both respects our Nation's budget dilemma and achieves our common goal for financial independence for all American families.

The other element is education. How do we avoid the trap of the education mill sort of programs? We now are forcing people to go through the exercise to qualify for a program and to participate in an educational program that has no future.

Sammy is constantly researching interesting information and writing articles to make it easy for his readers to understand.

To see more of his writing, visit his web pages about License Plate Lookup sites and Free Public Criminal Records.