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Persuasive Essay On Entitlement

1161 Words5 Pages

Entitlement spending was negligible until the Great Depression of the 1930s. From there government spending on entitlement programs rose to over fifteen percent of the Gross Domestic Product in 2016 (usgovernmentspending.com). Landmark entitlement programs were established through the New Deal and Great Society. Most recently, entitlement saw one of its biggest successes in ObamaCare. But what are entitlements, how do they affect our nation today, and do we still need them?
Entitlement was the term given to government programs that provide benefits to certain groups. Merriam-Webster defines entitlement as either having a right to certain benefits by law, or a belief that one is deserving of certain privileges. In passing laws like the Social Security Act and the Affordable Care Act, the government gave the American people the right to those benefits. If you plan on living past sixty-five, you are entitled to an amount of money that you have been paying toward your whole life. If you are a citizen, you are entitled to some type of health insurance. But has something that was once a revolutionary privilege, a “hand up” from the government, turned into an expected handout?
“Government handouts are often associated with income redistribution from earners to non-earners. ‘A hand up, not a handout’ means …show more content…

Roosevelt, after acknowledging a nation can never fully be insured against life, says, “we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.” This umbrella over the needy is a common theme among entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare. They strive to protect the old, the sick, the poor, and the disabled from having to struggle without insurance. In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus blesses those who cared for the least of these, because in doing so they cared for Him. Is it not then a righteous thing to insure the

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