Free for All Welfare Grant Programs Hurt Our Nation's Most Vulnerable

The Social Security program was labeled the number one most harmful program to the United States by John Gizzi, political Editor at Human Events in June of 2006. Social Security was originally intended to provide a safety net for our most vulnerable American Citizens. "In Just 10 years, spending on the elderly will total nearly $1.8 trillion, almost half the federal budget, according to new Brookings Institution and Congressional Budget Office projections. That is up from 29 percent in 1990 and 35 percent in 2000" ¹

In the Social Security Act you are finding more and more programs that lack proper eligibility requirements to protect the funding source for our nations elderly and needy. Currently, the government imposes a 12.4% tax on the first $94,200 in income earned by every worker in the United States to contribute to the Social Security Fund. Programs that lack eligibility requirements therefore are fully funded by the United States tax payer well beyond the needy populations the programs were originally intended for.

One such program that lacks any eligibility requirements that provides federal block grant funding to the various states that participate in both Title IV-A, Formerly AFDC, (Cash Assistance and TANF) and a Child Support Enforcement Program, is Title IV-D². The Title IV-Dwelfare programs that are voluntarily operated by the various states have forced the inclusion of the middle-class and upper-class into the various programs to ensure high paybacks by the federal government.

In 2006 alone, $4.2 Billion ³ of taxpayer money administered by the Social Security Administration is being plundered to pay for the inclusion of the individuals that do not qualify for any other government assistance with incomes exceeding 200% of the poverty line at the sole expense of the U.S. tax payer. Grant programs are being used for revenue generation by the states as opposed to solving legitimate societal problems.

By placing necessary eligibility restrictions on free-for-all welfare grant programs by the various States that are participating in voluntary Title IV-D welfare programs, we will immediately control spending and unnecessary growth of a growing nationwide beauracracy that is taking away from our elderly and needy and protect our tax payers from having to bear the full burden of affluent and already self-sufficient Americans being forced into state-managed welfare programs.

1. (Washington Post, Aging Population Posts Global Challenges, February 2, 2005)
2. Social Security Act Sec 451 - Sec 469B.
3. Social Security Act Sec 458; 42 USC 658a