1.  “The preamble to the Constitution states that ‘We the People of the United States, in Order to create a more perfect union, establish Justice…promote the general Welfare…do ordain and establish this Constitution.’ Social policy is set with this important charge in mind.” - Wood

2.  Government’s responsibility for the welfare of its citizens remains controversial and disputed today  Majoritarian v. Client: Generally two kinds of social welfare programs in the US: those that help most people, and those that help only a small number of people.  Majoritarian examples include Social Security & Medicare (help many)  Client examples include Medicaid & Food Stamps (help small #)  Entitlement programs: government-sponsored programs providing mandated benefits to those who meet eligibility requirements

3. Who deserves to benefit?  Insistence that it be only those who cannot help themselves  Slow, steady change in deserving/undeserving line  Alterative view: fair share of national income; government redistribute money  Preference to give services, not money, to help deserving poor

4.  Behind twenty-two European nations  Contrast with Great Britain in 1908 ◦ “What ordinary politics brought to England in 1908, only the crisis politics of 1935 would bring to the United States.” ◦ But once the programs started, they grew fast!  By 1983, one third of all Americans received benefits from one or more social welfare programs.

5.  Federal involvement “illegal” until 1930s  Experiments by state governments ◦ Argues against federal involvement because state already providing welfare ◦ Lobbied for federal involvement to help states

6. Social Security Act of 1935  Great Depression of 1929: local relief overwhelmed  Elections of 1932: Democrats & FDR swept in ◦ Legal and political roadblocks; was direct welfare unconstitutional? ◦ Fear of more radical movements  Long’s “Share Our Wealth”  Sinclair’s “End Poverty in California”  Townsend’s old-age program  Cabinet Committee’s two-part plan ◦ “Insurance” for unemployed and elderly ◦ “Assistance” for dependent children, blind, aged ◦ Federally funded, state-administered program under means test

7. Medicare Act of 1965  Medical benefits omitted in 1935: controversial but done to ensure passage  Opponents:  AMA  House Ways and Means Committee under Wilbur Mills  1964 elections: Democrats’ big majority altered Ways and Means  Objections anticipated in plan  Application only to aged, not everybody  Only hospital, not doctors’, bills covered  Broadened by Ways and Means to include Medicaid for poor; pay doctors’ bills for elderly

8. Social Security  Not enough people paying into Social Security  Three solutions: ◦ Raise the retirement age to seventy, freeze the size of retirement benefits, raise Social Security taxes ◦ Privatize Social Security ◦ Combine first two methods and allow individual investment in mutual funds

9. Medicare  Problems: huge costs and inefficient  b. Possible solutions ◦ Get rid of Medicare and have doctors and hospitals work for government ◦ Elderly take Medicare money and buy health insurance  Delaying the inevitable ◦ Clinton and surplus, new benefits ◦ Bush and attempts at new health care measures – Medicare Modernization Act of 2003

10.  Programs with widely distributed benefits & costs ◦ Beneficiaries must believe they will come out ahead ◦ Political elites must believe in legitimacy of program  Social Security & Medicare looked like “free lunch”  Debate over legitimacy: Social Security (1935) ◦ a. Constitution did not authorize federal welfare (conservatives) ◦ But benefits were not really a federal expenditure (liberals)  Good politics unless cost to voters exceeds benefits

11.  Scarcely noticed part of Social Security Act  Federal government permitted state to ◦ Define need ◦ Set benefit levels ◦ Administer program  Federal government increased rules of operation  New programs (e.g., Food Stamps, Earned Income Tax Credit, free school meals)

12.  Difficult to sustain political support ◦ States complained about federal regulations ◦ Public opinion turned against program ◦ Composition of program participants changed  Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)

13.  Programs pass if cost to public not perceived as great and client considered deserving  Americans believe today that able-bodied people should work for welfare benefits  Americans prefer service strategy to income strategy ◦ Charles Murray: high welfare benefits made some young people go on welfare rather than seek jobs ◦ No direct evidence supports Murray

14.  U.S. government currently assumes responsibility for ◦ Health care ◦ Welfare ◦ Education