Social Welfare Policy

Social Welfare Policy

Period 4

AP US Government

Alina Shvartsman

Lisette Curtis

Madeline Trachtenberg

Shana

Vocabulary Terms: Social Policy 1-13

1. AFDC: Aid to Families with Dependent Children; federal assistance program in effect from 1935-1997 administered by the US Department of Health and Human Services; provided financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income.
2. Almshouses: charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community; usually for older people who cannot work to earn enough for rent.
3. Assistance program: a government program financed by general income taxes that provides benefits to poor citizens without requiring contributions from them.
4. Cost of living adjustment: an escalator clause, especially in union contracts, that grants automatic wage increases to cover the rising cost of living sue to inflation.
5. Earned income tax credit: a tax credit for people who work and have low wages; reduces the amount of taxes the poor working person owes; may also give a refund.
6. Entitlement: a claim for government funds that cannot be abridged without violating the rights of the claimant; for example social security benefits or payments on a contract.
7. EPIC: Electronic Privacy Information Center; a public interest research group established to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties and protecting privacy, the first amendment, and constitutional values in the information age.
8. FICA: Federal Insurance Contributions Act; US governmental legislation under which taxes are levied for social security.
9. Food stamps: any coupon given under a federal program to eligible and needy persons that are redeemable for food at designated grocery stores or markets.
10. Income strategy: an investment strategy that pursues income, typically by investing in bonds and high-yielding stocks.
11. Indexing: investing for market returns by purchasing shares in an index fund
12. Insurance program: a self-financing government program based on contributions that provide benefits to unemployed or retired persons.
13. Means test: an investigative process undertaken to determine whether or not an individual or a family is eligible to qualify for help from the government.
14. Medicaid- Medicaid was created in 1965 through the social security act. It is the largest health care program that gives money to people with an limited income. Medicaid is funded by both the federal and state governments, but ultimately managed by the individual states. Although exact eligibility rules vary per state, Medicaid assists underprivileged parents, children and seniors with little or no health insurance. Have tp had past the means test. (Very similar to the AFDC program)

1. Medicare- Medicare is a federally funded program used to provide medical and drug coverage, through health insurance, to people over the age of 65 years and older. Medicare can also qualify for the disabled or individuals with extreme kidney disease. Like Medicaid, it was developed by President Johnson in the Social Security act of 1965.

1. Mothers pension- (Also known as Mother’s Aid) Mothers pension was created in the early 1930’s and by 1935 38 states had adopted it.. It is a program where the government gives money, or as the book says “financial assistance,” to a widowed or single mother who was leading an appropriate homelife.

1. Service strategy- Service strategy is the tactic in which the federal and state government decides whether or not an individual is eligible for social welfare. Considerations include : who deserves the benefits, more so then other people; how will the money be used; what is a fair amount; does the individual need to be more “ self reliant.”

1. Share Our Wealth Plan- Share our wealth plan was a movement proposed by a man named Huey Long on the radio, during the time of the depression, in 1934. It was a 7 step program ensuring groups of equal benefits, treatments and government funding. Some of the steps included- All education opportunities be great and have an equal opportunity, people over the age of 60 would receive somewhat of a retirement fund, veterans get all allocated money and more.

1. Social Security- Social Security is a program created by the government to guarantee a social insurance program for the elderly, disabled, poor, and underprivileged. It is often a system where an individual, who has been working for ten years, is eligible to place money in an account so when he or she is in need, or retires they receiver a constant pension to assist them.

1. SSI- SSI stands for the Supplemental Security income. The program is funded by the federal government and is a part of the means test. The SSI gives pensions and payments to the elderly, people who have disabilities, and the blind who have very low income and need financial assistance.

1. TANF- TANF stands for the TemporaryAssistance for Needy Families and is funded by the National Government. The Program was created to substitute the ADFC program and gives cash to low-income or families in need with children. It’s goal is to try and reinstate a stable family life and pay for food, health etc.

1. Townsend Plan- the Townsend plan was projected during the Great Depression, which in a 20 % sales tax would give 200 dollars a month, to people over the age of 60. It was proposed by a man named Dr. Francis Everett Townsend and the money would have to be spent over a 30 day period. It was said to have allowed people to live close to a “middle class lifestyle.” It helped influence President Franklin Roosevelt in creating the Social Security Act.

1. Unemployment insurance- Unemployment Insurance is a benefit program managed by the states and paid by taxes that give payments once a week to individuals who are unable to find a job or recently been fired or let go. The program has nothing to do with the means test.
2. WIC- The WIC stands for the Welfare and Institutions code. IT makes sure that the disabled and often mentally ill at all times are equally protected, especially regards to financial and medical assistance.

DISSCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Describe the goals of the American social welfare system and contrast its programs with those of the British system in terms of centralization.

The goal of the social welfare system exists in order to help those who cannot help themselves. Welfare works in regard to people’s overall well being. Welfare works in order to establish a standard of decency and civility. Overall the goal of social welfare is to essentially ensure that the government and its people live functionally. Britain uses the “liberal model” in order establish social welfare, creating safety nets for their people and even unemployment insurance. The American system however originated from the businesses providing services for their employees.

1. Describe the major elements of the American social welfare system including the social security act of 1935 and the Medicare act of 1965.

Social Security program began as a measure to implement "social insurance" during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when poverty rates among senior citizens exceeded 50%. Social Security was passed in conjunction with Roosevelt’s New Deal as a result of the enormous depression the country was facing. By the 1950’s Social Welfare gradually moved towards universal coverage.Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria. Medicare operates as a single-payer health care system.

1. Describe the role that states and private organizations play in the administration of welfare programs. What is George W. Bush’s faith based initiative?

Basically the initiative was used in order to provide more federal funding for faith-based institutions moving our secular government to a more conservative religious one. [“The initiative sought to strengthen faith-based and community organizations and expand their capacity to provide federally-funded social services, with the idea having been that these groups were well-situated to meet the needs of local individuals. As Texas governor, Bush had used the "Charitable Choice" provisions of the 1996 welfare reform (which allowed "faith-based" entities to compete for government contracts to deliver social services) to support faith-based groups in Texas.”] Corporations provide welfare thorough benefits, insurances and other reward programs.

1. Explain why some welfare policy making is the result of majoritarian politics while the others are the result of client politics. Give examples and indicate the political consequences of each.

Majoritarian politics are where the costs are for everyone and it benefits everyone.

Client politics pass if the cost for others is not large and the client is deserving of the benefits and welfare. Client politics exists when everyone pays and few individuals benefit. Majoritarian would include social security however client would include corporations that try to include minute changes in the tax laws.

1. Analyze and comment on the promise and performance of the Regan administrations cut in welfare programs while keeping the American safety net in tact.

Regan reasoned that the recent tax cuts would enable him to cut unnecessary welfare programs implementing his supply side economics. This seemed to solidify his idea of Reganomics and his incorporation of it as a new economic model and policy. “Many historians and economists blame Reagan's 'voodoo economic' policies and extreme deficit spending for the crash and economic hardships, although that conclusion is debatable.”

Trachtenberg, Madeline

Social Welfare questions 6-10

Period 4 AP US Government

30. The Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was a component of the Social Security Act of 1935. During the depression, the federal government recognized that many states were running programs to help children whose fathers were absent and who were living in poverty. The AFDC provided federal assistance to these states. States had the responsibility of deciding what constituted “need”, to set benefit levels, and to administer programs. The federal government instructed the states in the calculations of applicants’ incomes and required the states to provide Medicaid to the AFDC families. The states created mandatory job-training programs for the families and provided childcare programs for working parents benefiting from the AFDC. Mothers were instructed to make their children’s fathers’ information available to the federal government.

As new programs were created by the federal government for the AFDC families to take advantage of, such as Food Stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit, free school meals, housing assistance, among others, public opinion of the AFDC program began to sour. The states did not like having to conform to the long list of federal regulations, and the public thought that the program was encouraging out of wedlock births by providing benefits based on the number of children in the family. The feeling was that the AFDC program was weakening the family. In several large cities, at least half of the families were secretly working while collecting from the AFDC program. Politicians complained that healthy parents were collecting from the program rather than finding a job. Despite several attempts to revise the AFDC law, and despite the fact that the recipients were only a small fraction of the population, they became a significant political problem. By 1970, about half of the mothers on AFDC were widows or divorcees, and over half had never been married, and by 1994, only a quarter of the others were widowed or divorced. Almost two thirds of the mothers had been on AFDC for over eight years. By 1996, in addition to these facts, out of wedlock births were on the rise. Political support for the program could not survive, and the program was discontinued. It was replaced by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF, welfare benefits where everybody pays into the program through taxes, and few reap the benefits.

31. Healthcare reform is still steeped in politics. In 1997, a bipartisan commission was created to come up with solutions to the problem of Medicare. President Clinton, who was instrumental in its creation, did not accept the commission’s findings. Instead, in 1999, he proposed adding benefits to the tune of $794 billion. Politicians, knowing that increasing the budget for the program would not erase the inevitability of disease and of aging, continued to propose health care legislation in fear of non reelection. In 2001, President Bush were working on an agreement of patients’ rights, prescription drug benefits for the elderly, among others, but by 2002, only 5% of the public ranked “poor hospital care/high cost of healthcare” as “the most important problem facing this country today”. This was a significant change from the 28% of the public who had ranked health care as the country’s number one problem in 1993. As the baby boomers join the ranks of the elderly, and as health care costs escalate, the health care issues will continue to be prevalent in politics.

32. Social Security will disappear if there is no reform. The baby boomers are reaching the age of being able to collect money from the program, and there are not enough people paying taxes into the program for it to provide benefits to all of the eligible retired people. George Bush was committed to reforming Social Security. He entertained three strategies. The first involved raising the retirement age to 70, freezing the amount of retirement benefits, and raising Social Security taxes. The second strategy was to privatize Social Security. Citizens or a government agency would be required to invest their taxes in the stock market. Thank goodness this didn’t go through – can you imagine how destitute the elderly would be today? The third strategy utilized the first two and added the ability for senior citizens to invest their taxes in specific mutual funds. These proposals were presented to George Bush for consideration just months after September 11, 2001. The government needed to concentrate on the war on terror and on the economy. Health care reform was put on the back burner.

33. When the country’s taxpayers put their taxes into a program providing benefits for a small proportion of the people, it is known as client politics. If the beneficiaries of the program are seen as deserving, and if the cost to the taxpayers is perceived as not too great, the proposals to benefit clients will pass. Of the two strategies, service strategy and income strategy, the service strategy of providing training and education is the preferred method of delivery of the welfare program.

One view the AFDC is that it contributed to an increase in the number of people living in poverty because it was easier to go on welfare that to get a job, and it was financially beneficial for women to continue to have children. An opposing view argues that there is no evidence to support the theory and that, in fact, the rate of illegitimate children increased during a time when welfare benefits were decreasing.

The American view is to give help to the deserving poor, rather than, as in Sweden, redistributing to produce fair shares.

34. The federal government has had to implement new programs to protect the United States from terrorism. The implementation of these programs required spending extensive amounts time and an inordinate amount of money, which otherwise could have been devoted to the reform of social programs in the United States. Among others, the costs of the war in Iraq, of establishing Homeland Security, of increasing security in airports, and of gathering information about the whereabouts and the activities of terrorist cells, prevented the government from having the time or resources to spend on reform of social programs.