问答题 Congress is now deliberating legislative and budgetary changes that would dramatically redefine the nation's responsibilities for the least advantaged. Debate about these responsibilities should be welcomed and new ideas given careful consideration. It is not written in stone or in the Constitution that the federal government needs to take care of the poor. (1) Current programs are widely viewed as deficient, in large part because they are perceived as encouraging dependency and the dissolution of the family. In some areas, the federal role has become too intrusive. And without new taxes, money is in short supply. Returning responsibility to the states with a tie-off grant from the federal government to ease the transition is seen by many as the solution.
In my own view, arguments that current proposals are the best means of dealing with these problems are somewhat disingenuous. (2) As many have argued, these proposals could more accurately be described as a Trojan horse designed to dismantle the welfare state that has existed for the past 60 years. If the objective is to encourage work and marriage, these reforms send the right signals but may disappoint in practice. If the objective is to provide states with greater flexibility, the solution is a streamlined waiver process and other modest reforms. (3) States already have a great deal of flexibility and could readily be given more within a framework that establishes minimum protections for the poor and accountability for the public's money.
If the objective is to reduce the deficit, this could be achieved without cutting so deeply into programs that help the most vulnerable. The poorest 20 percent of the population now receives roughly 4 percent of all income in the United States. Any deficit reduction package that asks them to pay more than 4 percent of the total burden is arguably unfair. Yet chances are that they will end up paying far more than this. Deficit reduction is a worthy goal, but numerous tax subsidies and entitlement programs could be tapped before low-income programs were cut. (4) As it is, safety-net programs are being restructured in ways that not only yield federal savings but also promise less state effort as well.
Finally, if the objective is to reduce poverty without encouraging dependency, the most important thing that government can do is to assist low-income working families with such measures as the EITC, child care, subsidized health insurance, and adjustments in the minimum wage. (5) If personal commitments to work and family are the surest way out of poverty, as they have been in the past, then these work-oriented measures are the best way to keep those who play by the rules from falling further behind.