POSC150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: United States Public Health Service, Tax Exemption, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
7 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
● Clinton’s Welfare Reform
○ By the 1990s - the Conservative argument won and even Democrats
acknowledged that need for reforms to how we fight poverty
○ Aid to Families with Dependent Children (1935)
■ Many believed that it encouraged out of wedlock pregnancies and created
“Welfare Queens”
● In reality, average women on welfare had 1.8 children which is
fewer than most married couples
○ Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (1996)
■ Beneficiaries must begin work within 2 years and until then participate in
work activities each week
● Lifetime limit of 5 years of assistance
■ Provides assistance but ends the dependence on government
● Payments are still well below the poverty line
■ Promotes job preparation, work, and marriage
● Equality
○ Equality of opportunity
■ Everyone has equal chance to succeed
■ Favored by liberals and conservatives
○ Equality of results
■ Everyone enjoys similar circumstances
■ Favored by socialists
○ In reality, inequality of results leads to inequality of opportunity
■ The outcome of one generation expands or constricts the outcomes
available to next generation
■ This is the justification for affirmative action and poverty programs - to
help break the cycle
● Expanding Opportunity: Education
○ Universal Compulsory/Public Education
■ Some states had it after Revolution
■ All states had it by the 1920s
○ GI Bill (1944)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
■ Provided funding for College (racialized)
○ Pell GRants and Student Loans
■ Government assists in funding lower income students for college and
provides loan packages to assist in costs of higher education
○ No Child Left Behind (2001)
■ Strong federal requirements for resting and school accountability
■ Criticized as an “Unfunded Mandate” and for forcing teachers to “teach to
the test”
○ Every Student Succeeds Act (2015)
■ NCLB reform - provides states with more flexibility on standards
● Expanding Opportunity : Health Policy
○ Prior to Obamacare - government was primarily concerned with Public Health
rather than individual health
■ US Public Health Service
■ National Institute of Health
■ Center for Disease Control and Prevention
■ Environmental Protection Agency
■ Consumer Product Safety Commission
● Individual Health Care
○ US is the only advanced industrialized nation without universal health care
■ FDR attempted to include it in New Deal
■ Met opposition from AMA and Insurance Groups
○ Social Security ACt (1965)
■ Medicare (non-means tested) - elderly
■ Medicaid (means tested) - poor and disabled
○ Medicare Reform (2003)
■ Added prescription drug benefit to medicare
○ Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)
■ Individual mandate
■ State based insurance exchange
■ Subsidies to help purchase insurance
● Who Benefits from Welfare? Those seen as “Deserving”
○ Elderly
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
By the 1990s - the conservative argument won and even democrats acknowledged that need for reforms to how we fight poverty. Aid to families with dependent children (1935) Many believed that it encouraged out of wedlock pregnancies and created. In reality, average women on welfare had 1. 8 children which is fewer than most married couples. Beneficiaries must begin work within 2 years and until then participate in work activities each week. Lifetime limit of 5 years of assistance. Provides assistance but ends the dependence on government. Payments are still well below the poverty line. In reality, inequality of results leads to inequality of opportunity. The outcome of one generation expands or constricts the outcomes available to next generation. This is the justification for affirmative action and poverty programs - to help break the cycle. All states had it by the 1920s.
