The Republican welfare plan

The Republican welfare plan now proposed in Congress should become law. There are a number of important issues raised by this proposed legislation and by the arguments offered on both sides of the issue. These are the ten real issues found in the research on this topic:

1. State control versus federal control

2. Morality issue related to the idea that people should develop a work ethic rather than being weaned away from one

3. The need to balance the federal budget

4. Imposing time limits and work requirements

6. Family cap so that no additional funds will be provided for additional births

7. Withholding benefits for those who may be legal residents--demand for citizenship should be a requirement

8. All benefits should be withheld from those who are here illegally to help reduce illegal immigration

9. Benefits should be withheld from those who are subject to addiction or alcoholism and who will not go into a program and change their behavior

10. Welfare should be seen as a temporary assistance and not as a lifestyle choice

Of these ten, the first three constitute the three ultimate issues. The first of these represents the essence of the Republican revolution in Congress, the devolution of power from the federal level to the state and local levels as a way of assuring that the people have more direct control over how their money is spent and over how programs are implemented. This has been designated the New Fe

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states; that reform had to include a real work requirement; and that it was necessary to put a cap in welfare spending to help reduce the deficit ("On the Dole, Worth a Gramm" 25). FEDERALISM The Republican program would first of all send many programs back to the states and allow local control. The legislation would end the 60-year federal guarantee of providing welfare checks to eligible low-income mothers. Representative E. Clay Shaw Jr. from Florida, chairman of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, sees this change as "the first step in getting rid of poverty and the programs that have so corrupted this country" (Katz, "Internal Squabbles" 3544). The Republicans themselves fought over the concept of whether the states should be able to gain control over their child nutrition programs by receiving federal funding in predetermined lump sums known as block grants. This argument did not deny the idea that most programs should return to the states but instead was based on the view of Senator Richard Lugar, Republican from Indiana and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, that child nutrition was too important to be returned to the states because it was an important part of the safety net (Katz, "Un

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