“The preamble to the Constitution states that ‘We the People of the United States, in Order to create a more perfect union, establish Justice…promote the general Welfare…do ordain and establish this Constitution.’ Social policy is set with this important charge in mind.” - Wood

Government’s responsibility for the welfare of its citizens remains controversial and disputed today

Majoritarian v. Client: Generally two kinds of social welfare programs in the US: those that help most people, and those that help only a small number of people.

Majoritarian examples include Social Security & Medicare (help many)

Client examples include Medicaid & Food Stamps (help small #)

Entitlement programs: government-sponsored programs providing mandated benefits to those who meet eligibility requirements

Who deserves to benefit? Insistence that it be only those who cannot

help themselves Slow, steady change in

deserving/undeserving line Alterative view: fair share of national income;

government redistribute money Preference to give services, not money, to

help deserving poor

Behind twenty-two European nations Contrast with Great Britain in 1908

◦ “What ordinary politics brought to England in 1908, only the crisis politics of 1935 would bring to the United States.”

◦ But once the programs started, they grew fast! By 1983, one third of all Americans received benefits

from one or more social welfare programs.

Federal involvement “illegal” until 1930s

Experiments by state governments ◦Argues against federal involvement

because state already providing welfare ◦Lobbied for federal involvement to help

states

Social Security Act of 1935 Great Depression of 1929: local relief overwhelmed Elections of 1932: Democrats & FDR swept in

◦ Legal and political roadblocks; was direct welfare unconstitutional?

◦ Fear of more radical movements Long’s “Share Our Wealth” Sinclair’s “End Poverty in California” Townsend’s old-age program

Cabinet Committee’s two-part plan◦ “Insurance” for unemployed and elderly ◦ “Assistance” for dependent children, blind, aged ◦ Federally funded, state-administered program under means test

Medicare Act of 1965 Medical benefits omitted in 1935:

controversial but done to ensure passage Opponents:

AMA House Ways and Means Committee under Wilbur Mills

1964 elections: Democrats’ big majority altered Ways and Means

Objections anticipated in plan Application only to aged, not everybody Only hospital, not doctors’, bills covered

Broadened by Ways and Means to include Medicaid for poor; pay doctors’ bills for elderly

Social Security Not enough people paying into Social

Security Three solutions:

◦ Raise the retirement age to seventy, freeze the size of retirement benefits, raise Social Security taxes

◦ Privatize Social Security ◦ Combine first two methods and allow individual

investment in mutual funds

Medicare Problems: huge costs and inefficient b. Possible solutions

◦ Get rid of Medicare and have doctors and hospitals work for government

◦ Elderly take Medicare money and buy health insurance

Delaying the inevitable ◦ Clinton and surplus, new benefits ◦ Bush and attempts at new health care measures –

Medicare Modernization Act of 2003

Programs with widely distributed benefits & costs ◦ Beneficiaries must believe they will come out ahead ◦ Political elites must believe in legitimacy of program

Social Security & Medicare looked like “free lunch” Debate over legitimacy: Social Security (1935)

◦ a. Constitution did not authorize federal welfare (conservatives)

◦ But benefits were not really a federal expenditure (liberals) Good politics unless cost to voters exceeds benefits

Scarcely noticed part of Social Security Act Federal government permitted state to

◦ Define need ◦ Set benefit levels ◦ Administer program

Federal government increased rules of operation

New programs (e.g., Food Stamps, Earned Income Tax Credit, free school meals)

Difficult to sustain political support ◦ States complained about federal regulations ◦ Public opinion turned against program ◦ Composition of program participants changed

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)

Programs pass if cost to public not perceived as great and client considered deserving

Americans believe today that able-bodied people should work for welfare benefits

Americans prefer service strategy to income strategy ◦ Charles Murray: high welfare benefits made some

young people go on welfare rather than seek jobs ◦ No direct evidence supports Murray

U.S. government currently assumes responsibility for ◦ Health care◦ Welfare◦ Education