The Importance Of Welfare Programs

The United States government provides welfare programs to financially support individuals and households that can’t provide for themselves. There are many types of programs that offer different services and resources. These include Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Housing assistance, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). According to the US Census in 2012, around 21.3% of Americans were using these government programs, which is around 52.2 million people. Most of these participants were children under 18, African American, non-high school graduates, unemployed, or female-led households. From the 2012 data, it’s been concluded that many participants stay with the programs

The drug testing would even the playing field for participants and create uniformity. The financial support is to help with basic amenities like food, shelter, and water for families; not drugs. These tests would help verify that taxpayer dollars are going towards families with no drug involvement and better futures. The programs don’t allow for the money to be spent on drugs, but drug involvement could lead to less jobs opportunities. Ideally the drug testing would find individuals positive for drugs and offer them rehabilitation programs. These programs could help them get the support they need to transition back into the workforce drug-free. This would slowly increase the workforce size, increase productivity, and eventually decrease the number of welfare participants with drug problems. It could be cost-effective in the long run. These tests wouldn’t solve all the welfare burden because of people with mental illness or disability, but it would offer healing to those who are addicted to drugs. It would keep them more organized and accountable for their

Excluding drugs from their lives could be a productivity boost and improve their overall health. Many US employers require drug tests before being cleared to work therefore this request for drug testing isn’t more invasive than going through the job acceptance process. This focus on jobs could help slowly eliminate long term welfare users. It might also prevent people from starting recreational drug use because it means losing their welfare, which may give them housing or a nutrition plan.
There are some tradeoffs to including a drug test for welfare recipients. Most welfare recipients have children that are hungry and need the support. If their parents are drug addicts, their children would already have less available to them, but this would prevent them from receiving care. This discussion is emotionally significant because the children are developing and need these programs to cultivate into functioning adults. If we didn’t drug test individuals these families would receive the programs, but the mother/father may not be a productive and healthy