Welfare (Part V)

The growing homeless population in this country is another example that demonstrates that welfare and social programs are failing. In the Dallas metropolitan area, there has been a drastic spike in homeless people living on the streets and pan-handling for money on every street corner. The United States spends nearly twenty percent of its budget to address the poor, but for some reason a large population of poor people are being ignored. Therefore, welfare is not only failing people because it promotes laziness, but it is also ignoring thousands of people. There also seems to be correlation between the homeless and those affected by mental illness. Some may have become homeless because of a mental disorder, while others may have developed a mental disorder by being homeless. In either scenario, it is making our neighborhoods more dangerous, and our government is failing to address the problem. Homeless people should be offered work through a social program that pays them to fix city infrastructure problems. If they refuse to work and continue to remain homeless, they should be imprisoned and taken off the streets. Those with mental illnesses should be treated at a mental institution and remain there until they can work and support themselves. It makes more sense to spend money on prison space and mental institutions than give individuals that refuse to work any money. People who give money to homeless people are only enabling that behavior. Worse yet, they are probably using the money they earn to support a drug or alcohol addiction. A homeless person will continue to beg for money in a certain location as long as people continue to give them money. It is sad, but the homeless situation is becoming a serious epidemic in this country, and it needs to be addressed. Homeless people who are not getting money can resort to crime to survive and/or to support their addictions.

Entitlement and social programs such as welfare have become a right to those that collect these funds. It is not one of our rights in the Constitution, but it has become an unwritten right of the poor. Our government will support the poor from birth to death. This is not necessarily the fault of the poor, but the fault of our government who has taught them that they will take care of them with entitlement programs. This is wrong and ought to stop because this policy is leading us into debt and bankruptcy, and it is not correcting the problem of the growing poor population in our nation.

President Barack Obama has already proposed increasing those receiving welfare to include middle class Americans who do not pay income taxes (That means over fifty percent of all Americans will be on welfare). This is Keynesian Economics and most Democrats adhere to this policy. They believe a strong economy is build from the bottom up. Under an Obama administration it seems as if welfare is growing to astronomical levels. On the surface, this is alarming. Today, nearly fifty percent of our national budget is used to fund welfare, social security, and Medicare. Hence, growing welfare will certainly strain our already fragile national budget and debt. That being said, welfare is one area that I am remotely hopeful that Obama can reform it at some point in his administration (he may be forced by Republicans during debt debates). A white President cannot reform welfare without being called a bigot or racist, however this is an area a black President may be able to make progress. Obama has already asked black males to be more responsible and that is a step in the right directions. If he is able to reform welfare (Republicans force him to reform welfare), it is possible that diversity programs, affirmative action, and quota systems could be the next racial issues to be reformed. This would be refreshing. However, Obama would have to stand up and fight civil rights leaders to get these changes implemented, and it remains to be seen if he is willing to take up this fight. It seems Obama is not up to the task since ObamaCare has expanded welfare in our country. Thus, we are heading in the wrong direction under Obama.

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