Many of these efforts fortunately have been fruitless. Alternatively, we could aggressively act to reduce poverty, which in turn would reduce the number of people in need of basic needs assistance. This would require a dramatic shift in priorities. Over the past 30 years, spending on education, training, employment, and social services remained a consistently small part of the overall federal budget, hovering around 3 percent. The hard facts are that more federal money is being spent on basic-needs entitlements, while the share of spending going toward programs that would best reduce poverty education, training, employment, and social services have largely remained the same from one year to the next.
Because dramatic poverty reduction and growth in the middle class fails to occur, those needing help with basic needs such as food continues to grow. To combat these distortions, progressives not only need to present accurate information about these programs but also must focus more attention on issues that should be at the heart of our national conversation.
This will help align good policy decisions with bedrock American values. As noted above, current federal spending on public benefits is significantly directed toward those Americans who are retired or disabled and who often face subtle-yet-insidious workplace discrimination due to their age or disabilities. Simply put, elderly and disabled Americans should receive public support from the federal government.
Can we agree that in America we should at least be providing these minimal resources for the elderly and disabled? Should we be doing even more to assist seniors? The answer is yes. This also means we need to support the social insurance programs such as Social Security and unemployment insurance that have served Americans well for decades.
Experts at CAP and elsewhere argue that we can find progressive ways of reforming Social Security and unemployment insurance so that they better serve participants and the needs of our nation. Similarly, we should be investing more in our children, our youth, and our young workers.
Twenty-two percent of Americans under the age of 18 live in poverty, and young workers have the highest rates of unemployment—with lifelong implications for their earning potential. Yet federal funding for programs to give a leg up to our next generation of workers is dismally low. Federal student aid accounts for about 2 percent of the federal budget. If we reduced poverty, we could reduce spending on basic-needs entitlements while having more citizens who are earning incomes that allow them to contribute more to our economy and contribute more tax revenue to our government.
For those Americans living in poverty, struggling to enter the middle class, federal spending should be devoted to programs that give them opportunities to prosper on their own.
That means federal assistance with health insurance, food, housing, home energy, and education so these Americans can concentrate on opportunities to join the middle class.
Federal programs that help reduce poverty and grow the middle class help our national economy and our nation remain strong and competitive. This is the debate we should be having today. David Min. According to tax professionals, welfare recipients are entitled to tax refunds after applicable tax credits are applied if they file tax returns.
They would also be entitled to refunds on taxes filed on any income earned during the same year in which they received public assistance.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Legal News Updated. Pat has a story that is representative of many aid recipients.
After graduating high school, she worked in hotels, factories and big-box stores, all in physically demanding jobs. At 45, she got hurt at work, and now has back problems that have rendered her unable to do the only jobs she has been trained to do. She and her family needed money right away. So, like many aid recipients, she found a series of short-term solutions to that immediate need. But taking one low-paying job after another to put food on the table effectively locked her out of the opportunity to build skills she could have used to work her way out of poverty.
Many children born poor remain poor as they grow up and raise their own families , inheriting the financial hardships of the past as continued pressure in the present. But more than anything else, health problems emerged in our interviews as one of the most pervasive causes, and results, of poverty.
At first glance, people receiving public aid may seem to confirm popular stereotypes. But as a newly single mother of two who had just gone through a divorce, Keira was trying to find a home and a job in a new city. Her clothing and appearance reflected the life she had recently led, and the jobs she was applying for, not excessive or illegitimate aid benefits.
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