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Chapter Nineteen

Social Welfare

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Types of Programs

Benefit most citizens, no means test (e.g.,

Social Security and Medicare)

Benefit a few citizens, means tested (e.g.Medicaid and Food Stamps)

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Popular Support

Majoritarian benefit programs are

sacrosanct

The appeal of client-based, means-testedprograms changes with popular opinion

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Social Welfare in the United States

The appeal of client-based, means-testedprograms changes with popular opinion

America has been slower than othernations to embrace the welfare state

State and private enterprise play a largerole in administering welfare programs

Non-governmental organizations play alarge role

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Who Benefits?

The public insists that it be only those whocannot help themselves

There is a slow, steady change in popularviews, distinguishing between thedeserving and the undeserving

The American public prefers to give

services, not money, to help the deservingpoor

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Non-Governmental Organizations

Contracts and grants are awarded to national

non-profit organizations, such as Big Brothers Big

Sisters, Jewish Federations, and Catholic

Charities

Charitable Choice: provision that allowed

religious non-profit organizations to compete for

grants to administer welfare-to-work and relatedpolicies

Faith-based organizations playing prominent

roles in urban welfare-to-work programs

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Social Security Act of 1935

Insurance for the unemployed and

elderlyworkers contribute and benefit

Everybody is eligible for insuranceprograms

Assistance for dependent children, the

blind, and the elderly Assistance programs are means tested

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Medicare Act of 1965

Medical benefits were omitted in 1935 in

order to ensure passage of the Social

Security Act Covers medical care for the poor and pays

doctors bills for the elderly

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Reforming Welfare Programs

Problem: there will soon be insufficient

people paying Social Security taxes to

provide benefits for every retired person Most solutions are opposed by the public

Health care issues will remain on the

political agenda

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Table 19.2: Health Care Spending in the

United States and Abroad, 2001

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Possible Solutions for Social Security

Raising the retirement age to 70, freezing

retirement benefits, and raising Social

Security taxes Privatizing Social Security

Combine the first two reforms, and allow

citizens to invest a portion of their SocialSecurity taxes into mutual funds

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Table 19.1: Public Views on Reforming Social

Security

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Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

(TANF)

Block grant program

Had strict federal requirements about work,

limited how long families can receivefederally funded benefits

By 2003, welfare caseloads had declined

nationally by 60%

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Figure 19.1: SSI, TANF, and Food Stamp

Recipients, 1980-2002

U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2003, 371, 374.

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Majoritarian Politics

Costs and benefits are widely distributed

Examples: Social Security Act, Medicare Act

Question of legitimacy: conservativesargued that nothing in the Constitution

authorized the federal government to spend

money this way

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Client Politics

Family assistance politics are less about

cost than about the legitimacy of

beneficiaries Example: TANF program

Beneficiaries changed: 1996-2003, able-

bodied adults had a harder time getting

benefits, but child-care spending in most

states rose by 50% or more

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