Introduction

In 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, with an unemployment rate of 20 percent,  Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act giving all Americans the “social right” to services to help prevent poverty. This social insurance program provided a monthly pension check for those 65 and over, and unemployment insurance for the unemployed and workers compensation for those injured on the job. These programs were financed by taxes on both individual and business payrolls. 

Almost 30 years later, with the U.S. still experiencing a post-war economic boom, the national  poverty still remained  at 19 percent, when Lyndon B. Johnson announced his “War on Poverty.” This initiative included a multitude of programs that provided public assistance or “welfare” to those identified in financial need. In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Welfare Reform Act. This act, which renamed the program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), allocated welfare money to the states in the form of block grants, required recipients to go back to work within two years and placed lifetime limits on how much someone could receive. In 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment, often referred to as the stimulus. This law temporarily increased TANF funding to states in light of the economic recession that had taken hold the previous year. 

Decades removed from Johnson’s “War on Poverty” announcement, the debate over the effectiveness of TANF and other social welfare programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) continues  Some argue that the United States has become a “welfare state” where people receive handouts from the government (food, money or other assistance) and that the existence of these programs discourage many people from seeking employment. Others argue that these “safety net” programs have halted a further increase in poverty and are necessary to get families who are in poverty back on the right track. Furthermore, new solutions to poverty are being proposed by the President, and leaders from both Democrat and Republican parties.  Today, as the U.S. poverty rate stands at approximately 14%, consider the following question: How Should the Government Address Poverty in the United States?

Objectives and Outcomes

• Students will understand and be able to use vocabulary related to poverty in the United States.
• Students will be able to identify the areas of the U.S. Constitution that gives the United States government the power to address poverty and the history of poverty legislation.
• Students will be able to summarize and evaluate the current federal programs dealing with poverty and proposals for reforms AND/OR current proposals by the President and the Democrat and Republican parties on the best way to address poverty.
• Students will practice and embody the traits of democratic citizenry by participating in a deliberation about the best way to deal with poverty in the United States.