Chapter 3- Policy
The Welfare Right Movement
-Arose to help people obtain benefits that people were entitled. -Movement brought change to public aid recipients. -To achieve this there were demonstrations, threats of legal action, and education about social welfare benefits.
Medicare
A health insurance program created as an amendment to the Social Security Act in 1965, covers virtually all older Americans and many younger former workers with ling-term disabilities.
Job Training
An array of programs that expanded the Manpower Development and Training Act, evolved into other job and training programs. These programs are currently embodied in the Workforce Investment Act.
The Food Stamp Program
An important step in the development of in-kind benefit programs, remains a major source of relief, providing nutritional support to a broad cross-section of poor or low income households. Today it is called the Supplemental Nutrition assistance Program.
The Great Recession- The Housing Bubble Bursts
Banks had significant financial incentives to offer these risky high-interest rate loans because they earned higher fees for making them. Providing mortgages at high interest rates to people who could not afford them.
Medicaid
Created simultaneously with Medicare, remains the major federal healthcare program for many poor and low-income people
Social Service Growth
Every state passed child abuse reporting legislation, and child welfare services grew. The Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963 was instrumental in expanding mental health services In 1965, the Older Americans Act began providing services like nutrition programs that helped older adults remain in their own homes.Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance coverage also expanded access to mental health, home health, nursing homes, and other services.
Early Relief in the United States
Four methods to assist the needy were: 1. Auctioning the poor to families who were willing to care for them at the lowest cost 2. Place the poor and sick under the supervision of a couple willing to care for them at as little cost as possible. 3. Outdoor relief was provided to most of the needy "in their homes" 4. Almshouses (group home for the poor & needy)
Compassionate Conservatism
George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency on the concept of "compassionate conservatism" to help the nation's needy. He launched a faithbased initiative during his first year in office, which included leveling the playing field for faith-based groups to receive federal funds to provide social welfare services.
LBJ & War on Poverty
In 1950, some amendments were made to the Social Security acts - Dependents of retired workers and survives of deceased were eligible for SSA befits - Eligibility requirements were loosened and payments were increased - Disabled workers became eligible for social insurance benefits - State were about to obtain federal funds to provide public assistance to the poor disabled
Residency Requirements Eliminated
In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court declared _______________________ in federally supported welfare programs unconstitutional,14 making it easier to qualify for aid.
Cost-of-Living Adjustments Initiated
Much of the increase in federal social welfare spending since the 1970s has resulted from congressional approval of automatic ___________________________, also known as indexing, designed to keep federal social welfare programs—Social Security, SSI, and food stamp benefits—in line with inflation.
FDR's New Deal
New Deal- would permit the federal gov't to devote more attention to the public welfare than did the philosophy of "ruffed individualism" so popular in the earlier days of the country. -Roosevelt believed that the gov't should act humanely & compassionately toward those suffering from the Depression -The Social Security Act of 1935, remains the cornerstone of social welfare legislation today. -Legislation protected workers' rights to organize and engage in collective bargaining
The Great Society
President Johnson's plan included a number of other programs. Among the most important are: The Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965, The Food Stamp Program, Medicare, Medicaid, and Job Training
The Progressive Era
Programs to represent many disadvantaged individuals began (1870-1920s). -Worker compensation groups -Children's bureau -Women got the right to vote -Laws pasted to protect women and children workers -Progressives were in favor of social insurance rather than charity
Struggles to Balance Budgets
State budgets suffered under the declining economy, but unlike the federal government, all states except Vermont are required to balance their budget every year. Experiencing fiscal hardships tax cuts and rising cost of Medicaid and federal spending mandates to states for homeland security, education, and election reform. Almost every state experienced a budget crisis from 2001 to 2003.
The Elizabethan Poor Law
The Poor Law of 1601 was enacted because the 1590's was a decade of food scarcity and widespread famine. -Parents were legally liable for the support of their children and grandchildren -Children were responsible for the care of their needy parents and grandparents -Vagrants refusing work could be committed to a house of correction, whipped, branded, publicly stoned, or even put to death. *The law did not allow for appeal
The Great Depression
The Progressive Era ended with the Great Depression October 1929 Stock Market Crash By 1932, 25% were unemployed, and 20% were on "welfare" Changed the way that we thought about people in poverty because anyone could be in poverty The idea of "rugged individualism" lost popularity as people became dependent on government supports.
The Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965
The first major, general federal aid-to-education program, included federal funds to "poverty-impacted" school districts. It became the largest source of federal aid to education. The act's most recent version is the No Child Left Behind Act.
Increase in Single-Parent Families
The number of children born to unmarried women reached a historic high of nearly 41 percent of all births in 2012. Women head 82 percent of all single-parent families living in poverty.21 Public assistance programs (primarily TANF, Medicaid, and SNAP) and the earned income tax credit, a special tax credit for low-income workers, are crucial resources for making ends meet
The Graying of America
The proportion of older adults in the U.S. population has tripled over the past century. Today, as the country's 78 million baby boomers have begun entering their sixties, they are accessing Social Security, Medicare, and other social welfare programs for older Americans.
The Rural-to-Urban Migration
This migration was the first major factor in social welfare growth. People from other countries were also immigrating to American cities seeking a better life. There dreams were shattered because those who found jobs were forced to work long hours/low pay under poor working condition.
Ending Welfare as We Knew It
• Bill Clinton pledged to end "welfare as we know it" by turning the welfare office into an employment office and by limiting the time families could remain on welfare. • Congress reached a bipartisan compromise on "welfare reform" called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This legislation ended the entitlement status of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, made work mandatory, and put time limits on the length of time families can receive cash assistance.
Boosting the Sluggish Economy
• First, the Federal Reserve progressively low- ered interest rates, which boosted consumer spending for big-ticket items like homes and automobiles. • Second, President George W. Bush, utilizing principles of sup- ply-side or "trickle down" economics, convinced Congress to pass a series of tax relief measures. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTR) provided some of those tax cuts, giving U.S. households money to stimulate consumer buying. The Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002 extended unemployment benefits for unemployed workers, provided tax credits to businesses affected by the September 11th attacks, and continued tax credits originally set to expire in 2001 to employers who hired workers from "underprivileged groups" or participants in welfare-to-work programs
Managing the Federal Debt
• President Clinton faced a $290 billion budget deficit, and the gross federal debt had grown from $909 billion in 1980 to $4 trillion in 1992. • Congress took a major step in grappling with the deficit in 1985 with the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Reduction Act, which called for across-the-board spending cuts in defense and many domestic programs if Congress failed to meet specific deficit-cutting measures. • To further reduce the federal deficit, taxes were raised. Two higher individual income tax brackets were added, bringing the total to five brackets (15, 28, 31, 36, and 39.6 percent). Other important changes were subjecting all the wages workers earn to the Medicare payroll tax and taxing more of the Social Security benefits of higher-income recipients.
Politics Overtakes the War on Poverty
• Some community action agencies became entangled in the politics of race; some big-city agencies were charged with excluding whites; and in some rural areas, whites believed that poverty agencies were "for blacks only." • There were frequent charges of mismanagement and corruption, particularly at the local level. • Today, community action agencies around the country receive assistance through the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), established in 1981 and currently administered by the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Community action agencies continue to offer a variety of antipoverty, social, health, and related services. • Though never intended, many duplicated, and even competed with, existing welfare and social service agencies, and some organized the poor to challenge local gov't agencies.
Economic Troubles at Home
• The rapid growth of the stock market during the 1990s produced what has become known as the "stock market bubble." • Indictments at Enron and of its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen LLP, on fraudulent practices ensued. Other corporate scandals (including Adelphia Communications, ImClone Systems, Tyco International, and WorldCom Inc.) swept the business world. The illegal accounting practices, earning shortfalls, bankruptcies, and criminal indictments severely shook investor confidence in the stock market. • Many workers lost their jobs, and others found themselves postponing retirement or other plans after their stock portfolios and investment accounts nosedived.
Economic Opportunity Act
• The strategy was "rehabilitation and not relief." The goals of the "war" were to allow ghetto and poor communities to develop their own programs to arrest poverty and to root out inequality in the lives of Americans. • A new, independent federal bureaucracy—the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO)—was established to coordinate the programs. • OEO was given money and authority to support varied and experimental techniques for combating poverty in urban and rural communities. • Each Community Action Board (CAP) was to be operated locally by public or private nonprofit agencies, with federal financial assistance. CAP board members were to represent government, private organizations, and, most importantly, the poor themselves.
