Welfare And Drug Abuse Essay

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Poverty has always been a devastating issue for the United States of America, particularly during the years of the Great Depression. Programs were put into effect during this time to temporarily relieve those dealing with poverty. Fortunately, it did just that. However; in the future decades since the Depression, more and more distinctive types of welfare were created. These have been put in place to help those in legitimate need. Illegal drugs have been and are becoming an even more colossal problem in America. The rise of those abusing drugs establishes the need to monitor those who are also abusing the welfare system. When we drug test welfare recipients, we are preventing drug abusers from taking advantage of the government. We are also …show more content…
With many different types of welfare coming into existence in the next several decades help for anyone and everyone in need was finally available. Family planning, insurance for children, elderly and pregnant mothers, cash assistance, food stamps, school lunch programs, and section 8 housingare just a few of the programs that have come into existence since the early 1900’s (U.S. Welfare Programs”). These programs were created as a stepping stone to help Americans during hard times. The U.S. government wanted welfare to be used as a temporary assistance. The US Government was hoping that the able bodied Americans who were accepting help had the common sense knowledge to focus on gaining employment. The goal of welfare was temporary help. The expectation was that citizens would quickly help themselves financially so the government would not have to pay them for a substantial amount of time. As the shamefulness of receiving government assistance faded, more and more people were asking for help. Since the rise in using government assistance, many claims of citizens abusing the system became a brand new problem for America’s government. A few examples include: people working “under the table”, being paid in cash, and not reporting their full earnings. Unmarried couples could claim they are not together to receive benefits. We also saw a increase in poorly documented cases, and fraud of benefit cards. People found many loopholes which allowed them to abuse the system (“Welfare

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