Need Info on Wefare to Help My Arguement With Some Co-Wrokers

m1-lightning

[m1-lightning]

I can't seem to find anything on the net in the way of the history of welfare. I've come across some reform issues with Clinton and Congress but nothing more. I'm looking for who came up with the idea, what President implemented it, why it was started and so on....if any of you are history buffs or were around during the times please post your thoughts. Thanks!

[m1-lightning]

I've heard two stories as to who started welfare. On the RLShow I heard the Democrats started it to get minority votes. On other chat forums I heard it was LBJ that implemented it.

[meandog]

Welfare actually goes back to FDR...he was trying to drag country out of the Great Depression (most of his policies actually probably exascerbated the situation rather than relieve, but that is for another topic).

[APBaer]

"Need Info on Wefare to Help My Arguement With Some Co-Wrokers"

The "Co-Wrokers" sound Orientar?

[m1-lightning]

I understand that FDR's new deal brought us a step closer to communism without actually calling it that and he enacted the social security program and TVA act ect. but no where can I find actual history on the first social welfare check.

[KineticKitty]

Try going to Google, and punching in Timeline + Welfare. Google out preforms MSN search engines and a few others.

[Protagoras]

It came about when politicions discovered they could steal the money of some people (at gunpoint if necessary) and exchange it for power by buying the votes of those who would receive the stolen money. (and those who felt good about it and had envy for the property of others)

[harpseal]

The first "welfare" program Aid to Families with dependant children was started under the administration of Franklin Delano Rosevelt it was joint federal state program to take care of widows and orphans.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - yorktown

[CougarGA7]

I was always under the impression that welfare was started in some part by FDR in his "New Deal" acts. It was vastly expanded during the Johnson administration.

[Lurking Libertarian]

I believe the precursor to AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) was something called "Home Relief" which I think was an FDR program. There were also state relief (welfare) programs much earlier than federal ones-- going back to the 19th century in some states, IIRC.

[Mensch]

The Constitution Versus The Modern Welfare State

By Larry Elder

The modern welfare state: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, and other so-called assistance programs for the needy, the downtrodden, and the sick -- funded through taxation.

But did the Founding Fathers intend for a government-provided social safety net? The evidence clearly says no. The often-misunderstood general welfare clause simply outlines specific responsibilities and powers of the federal government, leaving all others to the states and to the people. James Madison, the principle author of the Constitution, said, "With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the details of powers (enumerated in the Constitution) connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proof was not contemplated by its creators."

For the first 150 years of our nation's history, the Supreme Court saw the Constitution the way Madison wrote, explained, and intended it.

What happened? Franklin Delano Roosevelt. While certainly America's greatest twentieth-century president, FDR nevertheless deserves the title of principle architect of the modern welfare state.

Angered by Supreme Court decisions striking down major parts of his New Deal legislation, FDR fought back, proposing a law to add more justices to the Supreme Court. He threatened to pack the court with justices who deemed the Constitution a "living, breathing document," versus the "strict constructionist" outlook by the anti-New Deal justices, who determined an activist, benevolent government as unconstitutional.

Even FDR's legal advisor, Felix Frankfurter, whom FDR later appointed to the Supreme Court, advised FDR against his court-packing scheme. In the well-received biography "Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny," author Frank Freidel discusses the profound shift in constitutional interpretation that occurred during the dramatic years of the Roosevelt administration. "Frankfurter," wrote Freidel, "had hastened to Washington and had advised (FDR) to bide his time before clashing with the Supreme Court: Let more adverse decisions accumulate and then propose a constitutional amendment. Roosevelt ignored the advice and set forth upon his own course of action."

In short, despite a depression and 25 percent unemployment, the Constitution, under the vision of limited government established by the Framers, did not permit this kind of income redistribution, no matter how popular or desirable. If you want to pull this off, advised Frankfurter, change the Constitution. "From Roosevelt's standpoint," wrote Freidel, "the emotion was not pique but outrage. His target was not the Constitution but rather the outmoded Supreme Court interpretation of it."

Following his second inauguration, Roosevelt remarked to one of his speechwriters, "When the Chief Justice read me the oath and came to the words 'support the Constitution of the United States,' I felt like saying: 'Yes, but it's the Constitution as I understand it, flexible enough to meet any new problem of democracy -- not the kind of Constitution your court has raised up as a barrier to progress and democracy.'"

FDR's court-packing scheme, ostensibly to assist elderly justices with their workload, angered liberals, moderates and conservatives alike. Many members of Roosevelt's own party, while supporting the New Deal, hated his naked attempt to alter the court's historic structure. "One of the unhappier aspects of the proposal was its deviousness," said Freidel. "No sophisticated person took Roosevelt seriously when he insisted afterward that what he wanted was to speed the business of the court through providing additional aid to superannuated justices. That smacked of the trickery of demagogues."

But the court-packing scheme worked. Shortly after Congressional hearings on the court-packing bill began, the court blinked. Justice Owen J. Roberts, who previously ruled against New Deal legislation, switched sides. Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes reportedly congratulated him on "saving the court." Eventually, through replacement appointments, Roosevelt built a New Deal-friendly "Roosevelt Court." And the country began accepting a staggering invasion of federal authority that would have stunned the Founding Fathers. "From this standpoint," wrote Freidel, "the court fight had brought the great end Roosevelt sought. The end was far more acceptable because he had not attained even a compromise; the legitimation of the New Deal reforms came from a court with the traditional nine justices, and it came fundamentally before even the first Roosevelt appointee took his seat. A momentous turning point had come in constitutional law ." (emphasis added)

So never mind that state-sponsored welfare violates Econ 101, while diminishing the initiative of both the giver and the given. No, the crime of the modern welfare state is more basic. As James Madison put it, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

If the it-takes-a-village crowd wants the welfare state, they should do so the way the Founding Fathers intended -- through integrity and principle.

Amend the Constitution.

[Skip Ripley]

If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on the support of Paul.

I don't know who said that, but I heartily agree....

[Mr. K]

Heres a useful fact:

1) An avg. welfare person gets about $20 grand a year in 'benefits.

2) The govt. ADMINTS welfare is only 30% efficient. (70% of each dollar does not make it to a person, it is spent in the paperwork), so in order to give out 20 grand it COSTS and additional $42 thousand.

Therefore for EACH welfare reciepient there is one full time govt employee.

[ravingnutter]

These should get you started...

The History of U.S. Welfare Policy (Powerpoint presentation)

FDR and the End of Economic Liberty

[Protagoras]

If you rob Peter to pay Paul, Peter gets sore, and who can be happy with a sore Peter?

[CougarGA7]

Here are some more reference links compliments of the History Channel.

Social Welfare

Social Security

The Great Society

The New Deal

[Publius6961]

On the RLShow I heard the Democrats started it to get minority votes. On other chat forums I heard it was LBJ that implemented it.

And what exactly would be the difference between those two possibilities?

[Publius6961]

BUMP

[Skip Ripley]

Well, I suppose some of that may hinge on what activity lead Peter to become sore...

[m1-lightning]

Great links everyone. Thanks for the help. So far from what I got is that FDR started it to get the nation out of depression and it snowballed from there. Now it's out of control.

[Sonny M]

If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on the support of Paul

The one catch is if Peter leaves, then you have no one to rob to pay paul. Thats exactley what happened in detroit.