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The Welfare Program

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The Welfare Program
Leeroy Colon
POL 201
“Welfare Policy”
Instructor Robert Dunaway
June 11, 2013

Federalism is “…a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units (www.freedictionary.com). Within that system are many federal policies. One policy in particular is the “Welfare Policy”, which has helped those in need and have been abused in many ways. It was created to help those families and individuals who had little to no income. The welfare program was created in the 1930’s during “The Great Depression” and has changes in so many ways since then. During this time the federal government funded and governed the welfare policy. For about 61 years, the federal government had complete control of the welfare program and many Americans were unhappy about how the program was ran. Americans felt that people who were on welfare abused it in so many ways. They would abuse it by not looking or applying for jobs, having more children to receive more aid, and not marrying anyone to receive greater benefits. With the federal government running the program, it would be hard for them to monitor who is abusing and who is not. Thus, making it easier for people to abuse the program. In 1996, Bill Clinton was elected President. He knew there was a problem with the welfare program. With this in mind, he and the republican Congress reformed the welfare program and established a law that gives the control of the welfare system back to the states. Though now it is in control of the states, the federal government still funded the program. They issued the grants to the states to run their own welfare program. The assistance from the federal government or grants to the states were called “TANF”, which meant “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families”. With the recipients of this assistance, it was mandated that they must find work within two years of receiving aid. If the recipients failed to find work they would lose


References: Federalism - definition of federalism by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2013, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/federalism US Welfare System - Help for US Citizens. (2013). Retrieved June 11, 2013, from http://www.welfareinfo.org Confirmation Number: F 08329144603 06/19/2013 01:20:33 Data Release Number (DRN): 2614
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