Welfare. Food stamps. Free or reduced lunches. Student loans. These are all ways that the government gives us a helping hand throughout life. No where in this speech do I want you to think that I am against welfare or these other helping systems, because I do believe that everybody needs a helping hand now and then, but when is that enough? When does the help end? Today I would like to talk to you about one specific topic that is a very controversially issue these days, which is welfare. First, we need to make sure that we all understand what welfare is. Welfare is a state to state based system that allows families or individuals who have little or no income to receive money from the national government. Basically means that the government gives you money if your unemployed, or have little or no income. There are many different things that come into play when figuring out who can receive welfare . Employment, income, children, and many others are some of the criteria that are set. Now that we all understand the basic knowledge of welfare, lets get started.
Your probably wondering why I'm questioning something good that the government is doing for us. But I'm not questioning the action of it, but who is receiving it. Many of the problems that have come up have been when should these people be cut off welfare? And how does the government know that their using what they get for the right reasons?
Ideas have been thrown out for consideration many times, one big idea has been random drug testing of those who are on welfare, or drug testing before they are allowed to get welfare checks. The reason being because many people take advantage of welfare. As I said earlier, criteria is set to receive welfare. It has been known that the more children you have, the more money you receive from the government. Unfortunately, some families continue to have children, knowing that they will receive more money. Also, people stop applying or looking for jobs because they know that the government will supply them with enough income to get by and provide for themselves or their families.
Some say that welfare fraud is currently not an issue, but lets break this down into numbers. How many families do you think are on welfare? According to the 2010 census, 34.2% of U.S. families. 2-3% of these families have been known to misuse what they are receiving from the government. 2-3% of 34.2% probably doesn't seem like much, but when you break it down and do the math, it really is a large amount of money, that is being abused. 1.2 Million families are