Robbing them Blind
Tangela Turner is a 22 year old, unwed mother of three. She is currently 7 months pregnant with her fourth child. She dropped out of high school when she became pregnant with her first child and has been unable to hold down a job due to the responsibilities and duties of a single mother. Therefore she is uneducated and unemployed and has been for the past five years. Tangela receives no financial or moral support from her children’s fathers. Under such circumstances, many may wonder how she is able to support three children and soon a fourth with no income, no education, and no child support? The average hardworking American would be faced with the stress and worry of providing the basic necessities, food, clothes and shelter for three small children but not Tangela, she is among the nearly 45 million Americans enrolled in government assistance programs (Smith). “I am able to receive more assistance just sitting at home than I would if I had a minimum wage job”, states Tangela. She receives $585 monthly in food stamp benefits, A $750 monthly housing allowance thru Section 8 housing, $625 cash benefits thru Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), she receives child care for two of her children and free healthcare insurance thru Medicaid. She and her family receive well over $25,000 a year in taxpayer dollars. A full time worker would have to work forty hours every week at $12.02 per hour for an entire year to earn $25,000. “When recipients work less, they receive larger transfers from the welfare programs that characterize our system. The welfare program is inefficient” (Browning 97). Many Americans agree with Browning. They are furious with the American Welfare System. What are the current goals of The American Welfare System? Who should receive Welfare benefits from the government? What changes can be made to make The American Welfare System more efficient? These are a few of many questions, tax paying Americans want answers to.
TANF or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families is among the largest of the 85 government welfare programs available in The United States. According to the 2011 Green Book research report, the 50 states may use TANF and MOE (maintenance-of-effort) funds in any manner “reasonably calculated” to achieve TANF’s statutory purpose. This purpose is to increase state flexibility to achieve four goals: (1) provide assistance to needy families with children so that they can live in their own homes or the homes of relatives; (2) end dependence of needy parents on government benefits through work, job preparation, and marriage; (3) reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and (4) promote the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. In the case of Tangela Turner TANF has certainly achieved it’s number one goal to ensure that needy families with children can live on their own. The 2009 U.S. Census Bureau states that 43.6 percent of reciptents receiving assistance are single female-householders (see figure 1) and that number is on a steady increase. Many believe that with such a massive amount of recipients being single females, goals 2,3, and 4 all pertaining to marriage will never be achieved. Several single females were randomly and discretely asked why they didn’t provide a two parent household for their children? The answers were alarming. Many of these women remain unwed and in a single parent household, not because the oppurtunity for marriage is not present, but because the government would reduce the amount of benefits they receive.
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Fig.1 2009 Breakdown of Participants in Government Programs. Data from Smith, Grant. “Now You Know: Participation in government programs.” The Commercial Appeal. 22 July 2012, Google. Web. 27 July 2012.

However the TANF program does infact make provisions for marriage. The Greenbook report states: “ Healthy Marriage Promotion Initiatives. The healthy marriage promotion initiative funds (1) awards by HHS to public or private entities