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Families and the problems they are intended to solve or improve and the effectiveness of them both. When people think about welfare they normally think of Medicaid, WI Work Investment Act, WICK Women, Infants, and Children and of course FDA Aid to Families with Dependent Children now TANK, and HAD Housing and Urban Development. They tend to view it as the federal government giving away the countries money and the tax payers hard earned dollars to people who can’t support themselves. Most people do not like the idea regardless of what and some are sympathetic to the poor and think you should help if you can and re financially stable.
They may wonder why they can’t support themselves, why don’t they work or go to school, why they are having all these children they can’t take care of. These reasons may vary. They could be a widow or lost their spouse, they could have been laid off from their jobs, or maybe their hours were cut as there could be many other explanations, but there are programs to help people get back into the swing of things such as training seminars, workshops, help with schooling and finding jobs as well as day care assistance, nutritional programs, finding housing and other needs.
Most lifer program are pretty much new but the tradition of welfare is older than the United States. Needy families were based on British poor laws and were divided into two classes. People who were unable to work and well bodied people who couldn’t support themselves. (www. Tank. Com). TANK is a system under the Welfare Reform Legislation Act of 1 996 the Person Responsibility and Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act.
TANK replaced programs know as Emergency Assistance (EAI) program, Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), Aids to Families with Dependent Children (FDA) program. It was designed to help needy families achieve self-sufficiency. The purpose of TANK is to assist needy families so that children can be taken care of in their own homes, reduce dependency by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage, prevent out of wed-lock pregnancies and to encourage the formation and maintenance of two parent families. (http://archive. Cap. Has. Ova) There is definitely a need to help the underprivileged and impoverished but there are pros and cons as there is in all debates. Some pros of the welfare reform is that it can strengthen parents relationships with their children and thin their marriages, it can help the unemployed find jobs and work, provide a secure home for children. The welfare reform can also provide and assist people with transportation, childcare, and more importantly the decline of welfare recipients since they are able to work and maintain bills and relationships with family.
Some cons are that these recipients are not likely to get out of poverty, there is a time limit on receiving aid, welfare is abused by some recipients, it raises taxes paid by the people, and it has a negative impact on society as a whole. Welfare programs have strengthened two parent families and provided secure homes for children. Welfare has had a significant decrease because families have had a chance to get placed on a job and earn the money to support their families without the assistance of national or state governments help.
Welfare is an unfunded mandate though states receive block grants from the government. A block grant is a multipurpose grant of several categorical grants related to each other. “Grants are primary carrots at the national governments disposal that include cross over sanctions, compliance through he courts and the use of federal Marshall. In contrast the federal government can withhold funds from programs states likes or needs if they don’t implement programs that national governments want”. Levin-Waldron, 2012). The block grant is a federal-state partnership approach that recognizes our countries obligations to help vulnerable constituencies in a way that is tailored and politically feasible to address local needs. (Forenoon, 2013). “Federal government programs such as TANK have greater impacts on state and local governments. According to Bane state and local participation is a ay to accomplish national goals and make local self-governments an essential part of national teamwork. (McDowell, 2011).
TANK gave the states some of its power back but not all of it because the federal government is still in control because the states rely on the block grant for funding welfare programs. Block grants are normally matching grants where recipients have to match the money the federal government allots them but, “if federal matching rates raise benefit levels then matching should have a bigger effect on total spending than on just benefit levels. Matching grants play a crucial role in expanding state commitments to assist the needy.
Under T INFANT states benefit levels effect a states benefit cost. ” (Cherries, 2000). It is ridiculous that states have to match money which is just as much money given to them by the government then they are told you have to do this or that where is the sovereignty in this? T This gives the federal government national authority over the states. National governments are pretty much threatening the state and local governments so they can enforce programs and funding that they ant being the supreme authors??y’ over the states.
The states or the people within the states truly have no authority in its government. The governments are dependent on each other and should have equal power. Some conflict arousing from the welfare reform between national and states government are that states and local governments cannot fund these programs by themselves. With that being said the national government can take away states authority. To come up with enough money to support this type of program states usually raise taxes or cut other services.
But, this rings concerns to the people Of the States who already are against raising taxes. What does this do to the citizen’s states are responsible for. There are arguments and debates that the national government has too much power that also arouses tension between national and state governments. States don’t always agree on the expectations of the federal government puts on them, which is why you should vote for what you think your states need. The majority should win. To me, effectiveness is a way or method to get something done looking for the response or result that you intended to get.
Effectiveness to me should be measured by the number of people it affects. If you put something in place you can achieve the results you were looking for but that doesn’t mean everyone complied or wanted to do what they felt they had to do. Your goal is not effective if you don’t get the greatest amount of results from the greatest amount of people involved. You should be able to satisfy as many people as you can. What does it matter if your goal is effective if you only achieved the results because people felt like they had no other choice?
In the matters of the welfare programs and policies that are in place, the federal government has been effective at putting laws and regulations in place to fund the states so they can get the outcome that they intended. This policies consistency with the constitutional framework of federalism to me is still controversial because to my understanding is federalism is shared power by the national and states government. However it seems that the States don’t have mulch power or say so over malls Of the publics affairs and concerns. “Federalism indicates that the national government has supreme authority over the states”. Levin-Waldron, 2012) Moreover if there is power shared between national and states governments they are not shared equally. The states are responsible for its citizens therefore, they should be able to handle the matters of its state with the authority derived from the people which is the original framework of the constitution from the tenth amendment that whatever authority is not delegated to the federal government is left to the states to make their own decisions derived from the people. Though, the states nor the people have any control because the deader government has it all.
Can you see how the checks and balances to prevent one branch of government from getting out of power doesn’t work in regards to welfare programs. In conclusion, this paper should have given you a brief evaluation of what federalism means, how federalism plays a role in the welfare. Given a brief history on TANK and how it helps its constituencies and its interaction between national, state, and local governments. This essay should have provided you with insight on the matters of faced by national and states governing authority in relation to welfare programs.