Jazmine Reyes
20 October 2015
Dr. D – English 102
Research Essay
Welfare in America
It is often said that most Americans cannot provide the right standard of living due to
low-income jobs. This could explain the rise in government spending, particularly welfare
spending. For example spending on welfare programs such as, Nutrition Assistance (SNAP),
Housing Assistance, Lifeline (“Obama Phone”), TANF and many other assistance programs.
Some elected officials in office would say that by reducing government welfare expenses, the
poverty level will increase. Others argue that by increasing or maintaining government welfare
expenses, will promote the type of live style in which citizens are not working to their full
potential.
In an article written by Norm Ornstein he quotes Mitt Romney from the 2012 campaign:
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter
what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon
government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a
responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to
food, to housing, to you name it—that that’s an entitlement. And the government
should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what….
These are people who pay no income tax…. [M]y job is not to worry about those
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people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care
for their lives.”
This powerful and infamous quote spread like wildfire among the 47 percent of Americans who
rely on government assistance for food, health care and housing due to low-income. And
although some of Mitt Romney’s points could be accurate he fails to recognize the struggles that
are very prominent in today’s society.
What most radical citizens in America fail to acknowledge is how great of an impact
welfare assistance can have on any struggling citizen/family. “[Due to the new welfare reform in
2013] the child poverty rates declined significantly. Roughly 3 million fewer children lived in
poverty in 2003 than in 1995, including 1.2 million fewer black children, marking the lowest
level of black child poverty in the nation’s history.” (Sheffield). The ultimate goal of government
assistance is to guide their citizens to success. They do this by starting a foundation to grow off
of. A perfect example is higher education. The government offers Pell Grants or Free Application
for Federal Student Aid (FASFA) to a person that comes from a low-income home in hopes of
