Chapter 19: Social Welfare

1. Chapter 19: Social Welfare Devon Clifton, Meghan Gary, John Martin, Adam Smith

2. Majoritarian Politics • Majoritarian politics- policies in which almost everybody benefits and almost everybody pays • Social Security and Medicare • Biggest problem is cost • Beneficiaries feel that benefits outweigh costs • Belief that the federal government have an obligation to help the poor and elderly

3. Client Politics • Client politics- policies in which one small group benefits and almost everybody pays • Medicaid and Food Stamps • Means tested- applicants must fall below a certain income level to qualify • Biggest problem is legitimacy • Can be killed by changing political opinion • Belief that able-bodied people on welfare should be made to work for their benefits

4. Client Politics • Let Patrick help you remember! • Client politics draws money from everyone, but transfers it to a smaller group where it is most useful. “Let’s take all the money, and push it somewhere else!”

5. Insurance Programs • Insurance programs- a self-financing government program based on contributions that provide benefits to unemployed or retired people • Medicare

6. Assistance Programs • Assistance programs- a government program financed by general income taxes that provides benefits to poor citizens without requiring contribution from them • Unemployment Insurance • Temporary Insurance for Needy Families • Medicaid • Earned Income Tax Credit

7. Service Strategy vs. Income Strategy Both are policies that assist people in getting out of poverty • Service strategy- provides people with education and job training • Income strategy- gives people money directly

8. Social Security • Created in 1935 by the Social Security Act • Social security income- an assistance program that provides people over 65 or who are disabled with supplemental income

9. Alternative Solutions to Social Security • Ball/Altman Social Security Plan • Increase maximum taxable earning base • Estate tax funding • Trust fund portfolio • Libertarian Party- Ending Welfare State Proposal • End entire welfare system • Raise the retirement age

10. Medicare and Medicaid • Medicare- a federal health insurance program that covers most senior citizens and people with disabilities • Medicaid- a federal system of health insurance for those requiring financial assistance

11. Historical Development • In the colonial period, towns would usually recognize an obligation to help people when efforts by family and friends were not sufficient. • Almshouses, Workhouses, Asylums • as time passed aid gradually became distributed on a more organized basis.

12. Historical Development • Workers’ compensation was the first widespread form of social welfare. • The result of a more industrialized economy • Adoption was still gradual and pragmatic • It took approximately 50 years for every state in the union to assume one

13. Historical Development • Federal and state social welfare programs have bloomed and broadened • Still pragmatic • Sweeping changes in welfare are normally only accompanied by national events • Great Depression/Social Security,

14. Major Social Welfare Legislation • The New Deal • Federal Emergency Relief Act (1933) • Emergency Conservation Work Act (1933) • Social Security Act (1935) • Great Society • Amendments to Social Security Act (1965)

15. Major Social Welfare Legislation • Modern Legislation • Welfare Reform Act of 1996 • Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)

16. The Current Administration • The democratic Obama Administration has taken stances that broaden the scope and magnitude of social welfare • Healthcare Reform • Employment Welfare Programs

17. The Bully Pulpit • "Among our objectives I place the security of the men, women and children of the nation first. This security for the individual and for the family concerns itself primarily with three factors. People want decent homes to live in; they want to locate them where they can engage in productive work, and they want some safeguard against misfortunes which cannot be wholly eliminated in this man-made world of ours.” • -FDR (message to Congress July 1934)

18. The Bully Pulpit • “"The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.” • Michelle Obama

19. Welfare and the Bureaucracy • The Department of Agriculture • Supplies money for SNAP program • The Department of Health and Human Services • Supplies money for Social Security through the Social Security Administration • Supplies money for Medicare/Medicaid through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

20. Interest Groups • Food Stamps • Food Research and Action Committee • CATO Institute • Social Security • The Century Foundation • AARP • Medicare/Medicaid • AARP

21. Federal Court Cases • Anderson v. Roe (1999) • Ruled void the provision of the Federal Welfare Reform Act passed in 1995 that authorized residency requirements • Zelman v. Simmons-Harriss (2002) • Court ruled that vouched were constitutional because they provide “true private choice” • Marchwinski v. Howard (2002) • Court upheld that benefits could be taken away based on the results of a drug test

22. Resolve The federal government should mandate state-administered food stamps.