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88. Social Security was designed to meet two goals: to provide a minimum income
for poor beneficiaries and to ensure that benefits bear a relationship to the amount
of __________ paid by beneficiaries.
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century.
Page Reference: 512
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
89. ___________ programs are welfare programs like Medicaid that provide
assistance to those who lack financial resources.
Topic: The Role of the Federal Government in Social Policy
Learning Objective: LO 17.1: Outline the goals of the federal government’s
social policy and the forms of protection it provides.
Page Reference: 508
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
90. Senior citizens are likely to be concerned about potential cuts to the medical
program known as ___________.
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century.
Page Reference: 515
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Short Answer Questions
91. When did the first social policy programs appear in the United States, and what
type were they? At what point did social policy programs expand, and in what
way?
1. Identify the first social policy programs as going into effect shortly
after the Revolutionary War, when the first programs were established to
help soldiers disabled in battle and to provide retirement pensions for
officers.
2. Describe how programs for veterans were expanded in the 1800s,
including the establishment of the first old soldiers’ homes and financial
assistance for widows of soldiers.
3. Discuss how the number of social policy programs exploded during the
twentieth century, beginning with the Great Depression when programs
were created to help low-income, unemployed, and older citizens.
4. Note that by the end of the twentieth century, more than 2,000 social
policy programs had been developed to address a wide variety of issues.
Topic: The Role of the Federal Government in Social Policy
Learning Objective: LO 17.1: Outline the goals of the federal government’s
social policy and the forms of protection it provides.
Page Reference: 506, 508
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
92. Discuss health care spending in the United States. What contributes to health care
costs in the United States?
1. Discuss why health care programs are costly to provide.
2. Describe how Medicare and Medicaid provide health coverage to
millions of Americans.
3. Discuss the drivers of increased health care costs, such as an aging
population and the high costs associated with new medical technologies.
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century; Social Policy
Challenges for the Future: Health, Education, and Crime
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century; LO 17.3: Evaluate the current status of and challenges for
federal government policy in the areas of health care, education, and crime.
Page Reference: 512, 518 – 519
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
93. What is the Head Start program? When was it started, how many children does it
serve, and at what cost? What are its contributions and difficulties?
1. Identify the Head Start program as a preschool program designed to
help poor children get ready for kindergarten that was enacted in 1964 as
part of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda.
2. Note that the program has served more than 900,000 children each year
at a cost of about $7,000 per child in 2013.
3. Discuss how the program, in addition to educating preschoolers, also
has provided healthy meals and snacks, monitored child health care, and
worked with parents to encourage greater involvement and literacy.
4. Note that difficulties have been encountered in achieving desired
student-teacher ratios and in meeting the needs of the population because
funding covers only about one-third of eligible children.
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century; Social Policy
Challenges for the Future: Health, Education, and Crime
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century; LO 17.3: Evaluate the current status of and challenges for
federal government policy in the areas of health care, education, and crime.
Page Reference: 515, 522
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
94. Describe the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as
Obamacare.
1. Describe how the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act involve
expansions of existing health care programs such as Medicaid for the
poor and the creation of new health insurance exchanges in states as a
source of insurance for low-income Americans.
2. Identify that most Americans were required to buy health insurance
starting in 2014 and would be fined if they did not do so.
3. Note that insurance companies cannot deny coverage to people for
preexisting conditions and must extend coverage for young Americans up
to 26 years of age under their parents’ insurance.
4. Detail that the special Medicare Advantage program for higher-income
beneficiaries will be frozen and some benefits abolished, Americans will
pay a tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans that offer broader coverage at a
higher cost, and the Medicare payroll tax will rise 0.9 percent for
Americans who make more than $200,000 per year.
Topic: Social Policy Challenges for the Future: Health, Education, and Crime
Learning Objective: LO 17.3: Evaluate the current status of and challenges for
federal government policy in the areas of health care, education, and crime.
Page Reference: 519, 520
615
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
95. When was the first public assistance (welfare) program enacted? What kinds of
assistance are provided through welfare? Who qualifies for welfare?
1. Identify the first welfare program as being created in the late 1800s,
when states established aid programs, called “mothers’ pensions,” to help
poor single mothers and their children.
2. Discuss how public assistance now incorporates elements of job
training, transportation subsidies, housing subsidies, free school lunches,
food aid for poor families and pregnant mothers, and tax credits for low-
income people.
3. Describe how welfare programs are means-tested, which means that
applicants must disclose all financial assets and income to prove they fall
below the poverty line, which in 2014 was an annual income of $23,850
for a family of four.
Topic: The Role of the Federal Government in Social Policy
Learning Objective: LO 17.1: Outline the goals of the federal government’s
social policy and the forms of protection it provides.
Page Reference: 509
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
96. What changes were made by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996? What exceptions are allowed under the new rules,
and what message does this act give to citizens affected by it?
1. State that the act replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC) with a new program entitled Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF).
2. Indicate that under the new rules, federally funded public assistance is
limited to five years during a person’s lifetime, and all recipients must
enter some kind of work training program within two months of receiving
initial benefits.
3. Identify that states can exempt up to 20 percent of people receiving
TANF from work requirements and time limits if they are blind or
disabled.
4. Note the message given to the recipients who do not qualify for
exemptions: find work soon.
616
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century.
Page Reference: 515
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
97. How are Medicare and Social Security funded, and why are some people
concerned about the long-term sustainability of these programs?
1. Explain that Medicare and Social Security are funded as pay-as-you-go
programs, with trust funds that cover the cost of these programs when
payroll taxes fall below benefits.
2. Note that Medicare’s trust fund is expected to run out of money some
time in the next three to five years.
3. Discuss the strain placed on these programs by the fact that people are
living long and that the costs of health care are increasing.
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century; Social Policy
Challenges for the Future: Health, Education, and Crime
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century; LO 17.3: Evaluate the current status of and challenges for
federal government policy in the areas of health care, education, and crime.
Page Reference: 512, 518 – 519
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
98. When the 1996 welfare reform legislation ordered the federal government to
promote marriage, why did advocates think this was a good thing? What did
critics say? What could the government do to promote marriage?
1. Identify the arguments for this idea: married adults are happier,
healthier, and wealthier and are more likely to give their children a
healthier start in life; and more marriages could reduce health costs by
reducing depression and crime.
2. Identify the arguments against the idea: domestic violence and child
abuse occur almost as frequently in married as in unmarried households;
government grants for marriage could promote false marriages designed
to get cash; and the best way to improve conditions of welfare recipients
is to find them good-paying jobs.
3. Note the ways government could promote marriage: by reducing the
penalties imposed on welfare recipients who get married, and through
617
advertising, counseling, or even providing cash grants for getting
married.
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century.
Page Reference: 516
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
99. How is the federal government involved in health care? Why is this the case?
1. Discuss specific programs/legislation like Medicare, Medicaid, and the
Affordable Care Act.
2. Discuss why these programs were adopted: Medicare is designed to
ensure that seniors have access to health care; Medicaid is designed to
ensure that the poor have access to health care; the Affordable Care Act
was passed to require coverage of Americans without health insurance. It
was also designed to prevent insurance companies from denying
coverage to those with preexisting conditions.
Topic: The Expansion of Social Policy in the Twentieth Century; Social Policy
Challenges for the Future: Health, Education, and Crime
Learning Objective: LO 17.2: Outline the evolution of social policy throughout
the twentieth century.; LO 17.3: Evaluate the current status of and challenges for
federal government policy in the areas of health care, education, and crime.
Page Reference: 515, 519 – 520
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
100. Explain why crime control might be considered part of social policy, and discuss
the federal government’s role in controlling crime.
1. Explain that crime control is not part of a foreign, defense, or
economic policy, and can reasonably be considered a social policy
because it promotes the general welfare by protecting citizens from harm.
2. Note that although policing crime is primarily a state and local matter,
the federal government contributes funds to states for this activity; and
the federal government must also enforce its own laws, protect the
borders, and prevent drugs from flowing into the country.
3. Identify the agencies involved: the Department of Justice, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
4. Detail that terrorism has become the federal government’s top priority,
commenting on the creation of the Office of Homeland Security and the
passage of the USA PATRIOT Act.
Topic: Social Policy Challenges for the Future: Health, Education, and Crime
Learning Objective: LO 17.3: Evaluate the current status of and challenges for
federal government policy in the areas of health care, education, and crime.
Page Reference: 523 – 525
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
101. Compare and contrast social insurance and public assistance programs, and give
examples of each.
1. Define social insurance as programs in which eligibility is based on
prior service or contributions, such as payroll taxes. Examples include
Medicare and Unemployment Insurance.
2. Define public assistance as programs that provide aid to the poor.
Examples include Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF.
3. Note that both types of programs offer protection against hardship.
Topic: The Role of the Federal Government in Social Policy
Learning Objective: LO 17.1: Outline the goals of the federal government’s
social policy and the forms of protection it provides.
Page Reference: 509 – 510
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
102. What kinds of programs has the federal government instituted to help the working
poor? How does that phrase “working poor” refute the stereotypes created by the
concept of rugged individualism? How might the economic recession of 2008
have had a similar effect in destroying stereotypes?
1. Describe some of the ways the federal government helps low-income
people, including the setting of a minimum wage, providing help for day
care centers, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and others.
2. Discuss how the concept of rugged individualism has caused many
Americans to think that people are poor by choice and that they would
not be poor if they worked harder, but the fact is that many people who
