Should There Be Mandatory Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients

Should There Be Mandatory Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients?

I. Introduction

Many people argue about whether or not welfare recipients should be required to submit to mandatory drug testing in order to receive benefits. Welfare was established to help those that could not help themselves or for those who needed a helping hand in times of need. However, over four million Americans are participants in at least one welfare related program in the United States (" Welfare Statistics", 2012.)

II. Welfare in its Early Stages

At the beginning of the Great Depression, nearly 18 million elderly, disabled, and single mothers with children already lived at a bare subsistence level in the United States. By 1933, another 13 million Americans had been thrown out of work, leaving state and local governments and charities no longer able to help those who were in need of assistance (Morganwrites, 2008).

Welfare was first established as a federal program during the Great Depression. In 1935, congress enacted a relatively modest program, Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), which was designed to help widows, orphans, divorced or deserted mothers and their children. However, just four years into the program, at least two thirds of those that were eligible did not receive benefits (" Welfare", 2001.) Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been focusing mainly on the creation of jobs for the masses of unemployed workers, he also backed the idea of federal aid for poor children and other dependent persons. By 1935, a national welfare system had been established for the first time in American history (Morganwrites, 2008).

Available Welfare Programs

The federal government has established 79 programs that assist those that are in need in one form or another:

12 programs providing food aid; 12 programs funding social services; 12 educational assistance programs; 11 housing assistance programs; 10 programs providing cash assistance; 9 vocational training programs; 7 medical assistance programs; 3 energy and utility assistance programs; and, 3 child care and child development programs (Harrington, 2012).

Our government has spent a staggering $1.03 trillion on means-tested federal welfare programs in the fiscal year 2011 alone, which means that it was our government’s largest expenditure during that year alone (May, 2012). The government established programs to help those in need; the elderly, unemployed, those without medical insurance, and for those that needed a helping hand when they were working but just not able to make ends meet.

Why Welfare is needed

There are individuals in the United States that are employed, but just not making enough money