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Public policy ap government
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The welfare of the people in America is put in the hands of the public administrators and political leaders of the United States. These public administrators and political leaders are voted into office to promote new bills and come up with solutions that will be in the best interest of the public’s welfare. When the subject of welfare is debated the first thought that comes to mind is giving underprivileged and disadvantaged people money to help them get out of a financial predicament and/or temporary unemployment. The welfare of the middle and upper class is not as common because the fact that people collect financial support from their employment. There are several biased assumptions about the welfare program in America that leave the subject open for discussion. Such as food stamps, and how low-income Americans are given our taxpaying money to provide food for their households. I’m against the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and what toll it’s putting on the taxpayers of America.
Food stamps are used to purchase food from local grocery stores, supermarkets or shelters that serves meals. The government provides the participants an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) that delivers the benefits on a plastic card. The amount that the card is loaded with depends ultimately on the number of people in the household and how much income you provide. Usually people who qualify for food stamps are low-income households. 76 percent of food stamp participant’s households include an elderly person, child or disabled individual (Department of Agriculture U.S).
As I now am classified as an adult of United States, and can put my two cents in when it comes to voting. I have been researching all semester about food stamps and whil...
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...s around food stamps participants, give marked down produce for participants and limit certain brands of food to be invested in with their benefits.
As I stated early, I am against food stamps. I am opposing towards because it creates a toll on the American taxpayers. We are contributing to fraud, the obesity rate and letting people have no incentives to work. The government makes food stamps so easy to access with the qualifications being so low. Even with the working poor getting “free” money for food, they still have no motivation to better their lives and find a job. I care about this matter because I, as a young adult, I pay tax myself. I hope that the government too will consider eliminating or reforming the Supplement Nutrition Assistant Program in a more efficient way that possibly could benefit not only the working poor but as well as American taxpayers.
Food Stamp is a government-funded program in the United States. This is a program that helps people buy food for their families; in other words, it is a very important program to families living in poverty. It is the nation’s most important program in the fight against hunger. This program was developed in the 1960’s; it is made to improve the nutrition level and food purchasing power of people with low-income. This program is offered to people who cannot afford to buy groceries for their families, regardless of age, color, sex or religion. Food Stamps can only be used to buy food items not hygiene or household items, and it’s offered only on a monthly basis.
There have been numerous debates within the last decade over what needs to be done about welfare and what is the best welfare reform plan. In the mid-1990s the TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Act was proposed under the Clinton administration. This plan was not received well since it had put a five year lifetime limit on receiving welfare and did not supply the necessary accommodations to help people in poverty follow this guideline. Under the impression that people could easily have found a job and worked their way out of poverty in five years, the plan was passed in 1996 and people in poverty were immediately forced to start looking for jobs. When the TANF Act was up for renewal earlier this year, the Bush administration carefully looked at what the TANF Act had done for the poverty stricken. Bush realized that, in his opinion, the plan had been successful and should stay in effect with some minor tweaking. Bush proposed a similar plan which kept the five year welfare restriction in place but did raise the budgeted amount of money to be placed towards childcare and food stamps. Both the TANF Act and Bush's revised bill have caused a huge controversy between liberal and conservative activists. The liberals feel that it is cruel to put people in a situation where they can no longer receive help from the government since so many people can not simply go out and get a job and work their way out of poverty. They feel if finding a job was that easy, most people would have already worked their way out of poverty. The conservatives feel that the plans, such as the TANF Act, are a surefire way to lower poverty levels and unemployment rates as well as decrease the amount o...
In the summer of 1996, Congress finally passed and the President signed the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996", transforming the nation's welfare system. The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act sets the stage for ongoing reconstruction of welfare systems on a state-by-state basis. The combined programs will increase from nearly $100 billion this year to $130 billion per year in 6 years. Programs included are for food stamps, SSI, child nutrition, foster care, the bloss grant program for child- care, and the new block grant to take the place of AFDC. All of those programs will seek $700 billion over the next 6 years, from the taxpayers of America. This program in its reformed mode will cost $55 billion less than it was assumed to cost if there were no changes and the entitlements were left alone. The current welfare system has failed the very families it was intended to serve. If the present welfare system was working so well we would not be here today.
With more and more people becoming unemployed and applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is imperative that we understand the benefits as well as problems this causes. Even while researching this topic and talking to some of my family and friends about it, it surprised me the amount of those who do not understand food stamps. Coming from the SNAP website, “Food stamps offer nutritional assistance to millions of eligible low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities” (United States). This program helps millions of people per year and gives upwards of $75 billion and rising. With the prices of food increasing due to inflation, beneficiaries are receiving around $400 at most per month. Using the Electronic benefit transfer systems (EBT), beneficiaries can buy goods from a grocery store using a credit-card like transaction, which takes the money off of their card. The benefits are received monthly on a specific date and vary in amounts from person to person. One family may receive $300 per month because they have three kids and need the extra money, while another may receive $100 or less depending on financial status. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. In the past, these applications did not require a drug screening to get benefits, but more and more states are adopting this. There are many drawbacks to SNAP as well such as taking money from working people’s paychecks every week and people abusing the system. Talking about a very opinionated subject, we must remove bias and answer whether or not the Food Stamp system should be limited.
People should be able to purchase junk food with food stamps. Others might assume that they have no money so why waste it on junk food? Food stamps help numerous people if they struggle with food at home, or don’t earn enough salary. Moreover, why waste it on junk food?
My name is Monica Pope; I am 20 years old and I am a sophomore at Texas State University and I am apart of the SNAP program otherwise known as Food Stamps. According to the USDA “SNAP offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low income individuals and families and provides benefits to communities” (2015). I get a set amount of money for food every month. Right now, I receive $200 every month and I have to make the food that I buy last me the entire month. I have truly learned that I only get what need for that month and nothing more. (Question 1)
Many families and people have become too dependent on food stamps. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) But if they did not have this program people would go hungry. “11.9 million people went hungry in the United States”... “that included nearly 700,000 children, up more than 50% from the year before.”(NoteCard #2, Point 2) The program does good and helps people but it also spends a lot of money to get people food stamps. “..food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007, and the costa have more than doubled to $77 billion from $33 billion.”(NoteCard #5) But in the end, is it worth it? People need the assistance. It does help people from going hungry and keeps them at least with a little food in their stomach to that keeps them from starving. A lot of people who could not get jobs, were eligible for the program because they did not have a source of income. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) Since not everyone could get work, the government changed the requirements and it went for the better and for the
Welfare has been a safety net for many Americans, when the alternative for them is going without food and shelter. Over the years, the government has provided income for the unemployed, food assistance for the hungry, and health care for the poor. The federal government in the nineteenth century started to provide minimal benefits for the poor. During the twentieth century the United States federal government established a more substantial welfare system to help Americans when they most needed it. In 1996, welfare reform occurred under President Bill Clinton and it significantly changed the structure of welfare. Social Security has gone through significant change from FDR’s signing of the program into law to President George W. Bush’s proposal of privatized accounts.
Welfare for the poor means minimal support, degrading, humiliation and continued poverty. On the other hand, welfare for the non-poor provides security and are based on legitimacy. The welfare system does not distribute benefits on the base of need but rather on the basis of legitimacy. Poor people are often view as less legitimate as compare to the non-poor. Furthermore, welfare programs for the poor are labeled and can be seen as disgraceful. As stated in the article there is much degradation and humiliations involved in some poor people’s programs that some try greatly to stay off welfare. Some who are qualified for the programs do not take it due to negative indignity and shame that comes along with it. In comparison to welfare programs for the non-poor much protective language is taken to cover up and camouflaged the wording of the programs. Another, important difference between welfare for the poor and welfare for the non-poor are level of government involved. Welfare programs for the non-poor are federally financed and administered with decisions on eligibility and on levels of support made nationally. Programs for the poor are usually supported by federal funds and administered as local programs. I asked my boyfriend what his thoughts were on social security and welfare he responded that they were two completely different programs .He stated
I believe that this would be efficient as the marginal benefit or each increment of the subsidy will alleviate the struggles of low income families and save them money while equaling the marginal cost of the government losing or expending money for these programs. While this may be a loss of efficiency, these programs create equity, or a fairness of benefits amongst our society. Further, lower rates of hunger in these low income areas will make a great community to live in as children can excel in school and parents at work without having to worry about the necessity of food. In turn, this could create an incentive for producers of food to lower prices to increase the number of people who can afford food with or without food stamp
Finally, food stamps are unable to be used everywhere. This causes a problem for those who don't have reliable transportation in order to get to the nearest place that do accept food stamps. To emphasize Rohini Mohan also talks about this in his article; Rohini Mohan says, “Secondly recipients are forced to travel much farther from their homes so as such to reach a vendor who does accept food stamps and has everything necessary under one roof.” Additionally this causes another issue for recipients to face. They now have to find a way to the grocery store or mini market to get foods and they are unable to maybe travel to a place that is nearer that serves hot foods to eat for temporary source of foods until they are able to get that transportation needed to get to the grocery store. On the whole te, the food stamp program is supposed to help reduce hunger and help the citizens that's in need and struggling to make ends meet but causes issues for people who are receiving them or help with one problem and doesn't help with another still resulting them in need and struggling.
"I've never been one opposed to providing for the needy. There are true needs. But if it's just for the greed, it doesn't matter if it's this or corporate greed, it's got to stop." Individuals in our society today are just plan simple selfish and inconsiderate of there’s; especially those others who really need the food stamps (SNAP) program. Yes, the ones who are trying to work and provide for themselves and their families and need the extra help and assistants. I mean that is what the program is all about. Also, according to an Chicago Tribune article “House approves bill with deep food stamps spending cuts “ “Majority Leader Eric Cantor” (House of Repersentives) “the driving force behind the legislation, said it was "wrong for working, middle-class people to pay" for abuse of the program, whose costs have skyrocketed in recent years.” My personal opinion is those who are caught abusing food stamps (SNAP) should be investigated accurately and should have to pay the money amount back to the government. Me personally, and well along with others don’t appreciate my hard earn “taxed money” getting distributed to someone that’s on SNAP and their abusing it. I definitely do not appreciate that. I do understand that times are hard in individuals need extra money to pay bills, or to move along with their everyday lives, but taking advantage of the working class, and government is not the way to go about it. I often feel that some individual is living beyond their needs a lot in our society today. Sometimes you have to put your needs over your wants, and sometimes that’s not an excuse. Focus on what matters the
Although it can be interpreted many ways, welfare is interpreted by many as food stamps. According to the U.S. government site, welfare doesn’t stop at food stamps, the program can range from medical assistance to child support programs (1). Citizens in favor of the program argue that the program is very diverse and beneficial to most Americans and deserves all the funding it can get. “The vast majority of American -- about 96 percent -- benefit from some kind of government social program” (Morgan 1). If 96 percent of Americans benefit from some type of welfare who would want to cut
Poverty caused by welfare is a controversial issue throughout the United States. This controversial topic causes economic job loss, society to have the wrong viewpoint of welfare and politically controversy throughout the welfare program. Throughout these problems more arise, such as the one trillion dollars spent in 2012 on welfare programs. Last year alone 668 billion dollars was spent on welfare programs alone. Some of the people that used welfare were cases of fraud and were abusing the system.
This conception is purely directed at the poor, thus creating the psychological impact mentioned previously. Food stamp participants as well as nonusers are not quite different, “The U.S.D.A. concluded that both food stamp recipients and other households generally made similar purchases.” (O’Connor) thus making this situation a war on the poor not on unhealthy options. This later has a potential of resulting in the issue of fairness, why restrict those in need of assistance and claim the users as ill-mannered considering their food choices, when all in all those not using food stamps carry out a duplicate life style. This further explains why food stamps should not restrict users from buying junk food, it encourages hypocrisy as well as creating shameful experiences for all involved. This also creates a mentally challenging situation for young children with families’ dependent on food stamps. A child should not have to endure the threat of bullying because their families cannot afford certain foods due to unnecessary restrictions. All in all, despite arguments made, it can be proven indisputably that the psychological impacts are worthy of being noted and considered and thus keeping unlimited food stamp choices