welfare reform
America is engaged in difficult and complex policy debates over the critical issues over welfare reform. There are conflicting claims and disagreements over the meaning of the facts and figures relating to welfare. Most everyone would agree that the welfare system has gone from a well-meaning program designed to sustain people who are unable to work and provide for their children, to a program that has become counterproductive to getting people back in the workforce as productive members of society. When President Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the caution lights came on to warn the welfare train of changes in the track ahead. The new law shifts responsibility for the nation's poor families to the states, cutting federal costs by $54 billion over six years and changing programs that have been in existence for decades (Missouri Department of Social Services website). Peter Edelman wrote, " The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done", an article on the new welfare reform laws. Edelman was a Clinton employee who resigned in protest over the new welfare law. He also helped Robert Kennedy with a speech in which he called the w
"The challenge for policy makers is to craft a system that provides training for those who need training, work for those who can work, and continued support for those whose situations make impossible for them to achieve any degree of self sufficiency"(Cave). That is ten percent of the American population. These jobs usually do not provide insurance, worker's compensation, and doesn't trigger the earned-income credit (Brushy Fork Institute of Berea College). The new law allows recipients only 12 months of training before they must work 20-35 hours per week. "Welfare is suppose to be a hand up, a program to get people through in times of need"(Cave). For example, AFDC recipients who completed a degree experienced a 248% increase in income for three years after graduation, compared to a 40% increase for other students. Both give valid opinions, but Edelman gives concrete information to the repercussions of the welfare reform, where as Cave is mostly stating his opinion. It concluded that the bill would move 2. The Department of Social Services plan is to prevent, reduce and end welfare in America. Stan Cave wrote an article on the future benefits of welfare reform. Without changes in our reform laws, it could cost $537 billion dollars in just four years compared to only $387 billion. Students in GED or adult education classes are not given enough time to prepare before they are forced to work forcing them to take jobs paying less than or minimum wage still leaving them to live in poverty.
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