FINAL

Austin Gardner

Final Speech

                Imagine yourself as a single mother with no job, two toddlers, and staring eviction dead in the face. Where can you turn? What can you do? How are you supposed to provide for your family? Fortunately enough America has a welfare system that can help this woman get back on her feet. Yes – I said GET BACK ON HER FEET.

                The Welfare system was started in 1927 during the Great Depression by President Roosevelt. It has been incorporated into the national government budget ever since. As I’m sure everyone has heard the Federal deficit is growing at an alarming rate and has recently surpassed sixteen trillion. Currently welfare spending is the single largest expense of the federal government, at over 1.03 trillion dollars. This is more than one out of every five dollars spent yearly. The welfare system is a necessary aspect of the Federal government in order to have a prosperous and humane nation, but the abuse and dependence on it is not.

                The initial purpose of welfare was to help families through the great depression, and provide people with the proper means to take care of themselves while also finding the means of which to start businesses and obtain jobs.  Presently welfare financial aid is available for those that are receiving an income below the poverty line, defined as the bottom 35%, or those who are currently unemployed. This goal seems to be lost in today’s welfare system, as it is becoming a dependent source of income for those who apply for it.

                On one hand you have the unemployment welfare that benefits those who are out of work. The two sections under this benefit are: the general unemployment benefits, and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Family’s branch. As I stated earlier, these financial aid systems are necessary, but have become abused and twisted in today’s government. These flaws were addressed in the Clinton welfare reforms, also known as the change from welfare to “work-fare” where the extent of the TANF welfare benefits were only given for two years, and then the beneficiary was required to find a job. This reform was more for social changes than political advances. With the way the welfare system was prior to the reforms it created an environment in which people could choose to never work and get rewarded for it; therefor, depleting their work ethic, and creating a mentality where it was fine to live off of somebody else, essentially creating a lack of pride.

In 2011 congress moved to get rid of the reforms, and instead replaced it with an attempt to obtain a job, or any kind of job training in order to find a job, and you will continue to receive unemployment benefits. The jurisdiction on what is attempting to obtain a job, or job training is SO unclear, that almost anything counts. This grey area allows recipients to continue on benefits without an earnest effort to accept a position in the workforce. An unemployment recipient continues to receive benefits based off of their prior salary/wage. The money they receive from unemployment benefits is higher than they could receive working a job. To reiterate – a beneficiary of unemployment benefits LOSES money by getting a job. This creates a lack of incentive to actually obtain a job, and increases the desire to live off of welfare. Why work an honest job if you are going to be paid less? The societal problems with this come with an intense lack of pride, and how parents demonstrate to their children that it is okay to live off of somebody else’s money, which will later leave to even more societal issues. With the current unemployment benefits we are creating an America that has no work ethic.

                The most frustrating factors are that there are simple, available changes that will benefit the recepients, the economy, and our federal budget. First off, the whole “attempting to find a job or job training” in order to receive benefits has to stop. The change needs to be required work with in the community in order to receive benefits, and if transportation is not available it will be found.  Also, if there is need of child day-care it will be supplied. Second, the national government will rid the disincentive to obtain a job by getting rid of the loss of income found in taking a job compared to the benefits received by unemployment welfare. Instead of providing government funds for not completing any work, the government will create incentive to get a job by making up the difference between that of unemployment benefits, and the attained job wage/salary. Basically, the government will create an incentive to work by paying whatever the job does not, to have them making equal or greater money to what they would receive doing nothing for up to two years. In doing this the welfare system provides incentive to work, while also providing ample opportunity to work and increase salary/wage until they are making more than they would on unemployment benefits alone.

                These simple changes have three MAJOR outcomes. By requiring beneficiaries to complete community service in order to receive unemployment benefits the community they live in is benefited by the work they do to receive their benefits. In addition, to helping the community these changes create a DESIRE to work. This change from being dependent on the government to provide for them to having the unemployment benefits maintain a work ethic creates the necessary societal changes. Lastly, the federal deficit will decrease by this cut in spending. By making the second adaptation to the unemployment benefit system, the national government will spend less money on this overtime, with people getting jobs, and only having to make up the difference as opposed to paying the total cost of the unemployment benefits.

                The unemployment welfare system is a huge right hook to the national budget deficit, and there are easy ways to change it. Additionally, the current unemployment benefits have created an environment in which American’s can be dependent for their income, and it actually costs them money to get a job. That all changes with the proposed ammendments to the current unemployment system, as it provides incentive to work, helps local communities, and lessens the blow of unemployment welfare from the national budget. I urge the national government to make these proposed changes as soon as possible.