The United States Constitution was founded on the opportunity for all and freedom principles. To ensure that Americans enjoy the fruits of the aid principles, the government set up a welfare program that would help such families who are in need. The welfare programs are subsidies meant for low-income families, who must prove that their incomes fall below $ 25,750 by 2019. The six major welfare programs offered by the government include; temporary assistance, medicare, supplementary nutrition assistant, supplemental security income, housing assistance, and earned income tax credit. Each welfare has its eligibility requirements, but they all majorly are based on the maximum income requirement.
Approximately 1 in 5 children lives below the official federal poverty level, whereas almost 1 in 2 are near-poor or are poor. This translates to 16.1 million American children live in poor families, whereas another 32.4 million are from low-income families (Currie, 2013). Some of the factors attributed to this are low employment rates, families headed by a single parent, education levels of the care-takers, and others. Child poverty often leads to long term effects like lower developmental and education outcomes, high rates of criminality as young adults, poor health, and a resulting generational cycle of poverty that are passed from one generation to another.
Welfare programs are likely to yield significant returns because it has been shown that investments in children, especially the less -privileged, have better yields. This is because the earlier the intervention, the better the results on the child’s wellbeing. The tax credit, despite taking a large budget, still leaves out many children who should need it most.
Many welfare programs have, however, delayed economic independence, have weakened family ties, and have caused poverty to go high. There have been emerging questions relating to the welfare programs, including; who sets the anti-poverty policy and agendas relating to the programs, what assumptions, both cultural and behavioral, are made, and how these policies and programs benefit the poor (Todd, 2010). The programs should empower individuals by providing job opportunities, free enterprise, and preserve both human and economic resources (Ulimwengu, 2008). Republicans don’t support the welfare programs. They say its a tax cut that only benefits the taxpayers since, they say, that the needy have other sources of aid. The Democrats, on the other hand, propose an increase on credit, to include both the working and non-working low-income families to guarantee an income for their families.
The government should ensure that its citizenry leads to good and comfortable lives. It should, therefore, intervene in situations where the families cannot cater for themselves. Aid is essential, but more important issues that the government should major one is empowerment. This will be realized in job creation and ensuring that people have opportunities to earn decent incomes.
Works Cited
Currie, J. Welfare and the Well-Being of Children. Taylor & Francis, 2013.
Todd, Jessica E. Changing Participation in Food Assistance Programs Among Low-Income Children After Welfare Reform. DIANE Publishing, 2010.
Ulimwengu, John M. Persistent Poverty and Welfare Programs in the United States. Intl Food Policy Res Inst, 2008.