Summary:
President Trump has proposed many budget cuts for social welfare programs such as food stamps, disability insurance, unemployment insurance, and even social security payments. Congress has struck down many of his propositions, but some of them are being enacted by regulation. Trump argues for the need for disabled individuals to join the labor force once again, and emphasizes the need to motivate the unemployed to find jobs. The program is expected to save $75 billion between 2021 and 2023. In addition, cuts to SNAP benefits (food stamps) could be lost by more than 700,000 people in the US. The cuts would also place work-training requirements on all adults 18-65 in order to encourage employment, regardless of whether those individuals have children or not. Failure to find employment within a given time frame would result in further reduction of the SNAP benefits people receive. These, among other social welfare programs, would face dramatic cuts in order to make room for military spending and expand border control efforts. Some economists have commented that the program would ultimately be beneficial, and assist the unemployed with becoming financially independent, while others have predicted that it will continue to widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor. These cuts would ultimately be contradictory to his original promises to protect social welfare programs during his presidency.
Questions:
1. Do you think Trump is justified in cutting social welfare in order to allocate funds for military spending?2. Do you think Trump's plans to help the unemployed get jobs will be successful?
3. Unemployment is certainly an issue in the US, so how would you change or criticize Trump's attempts to get the unemployed into jobs?
Deciding what programs are more important and allocating funding accordingly is within the responsibilities of the federal government. However, Trump should not circumvent Congress to push his own agenda. Additionally, Trump's support for his border wall and additional military spending undermines his claim that he is defunding welfare to reduce the deficit. While I agree that we should fight fraud, Trump's proposal seems to assume that people on welfare are simply lazy and will enter the workforce if we starve them out. This model merely punishes the unemployed rather than making it easier to get jobs, and has been implemented in various states with minimal success. Therefore, I doubt Trump's proposal will be successful either.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Derek has stated: that Trump’s proposed plan is geared in the mindset that the poor or unemployed are “not trying hard enough” and would only serve to punish them for reasons that may be out of their control. While skill training could be helpful, it won’t do much to address issues like the high requirements companies put out for low-paying jobs, or that minimum wage jobs can barely support people’s lives. The spending for military and security could be used in programs to help the unemployed, and I think the money would be better spent in social welfare programs. Overall, I do not think that this plan is going to help the unemployment rate.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of so-called "welfare queens" leaching money from the government and doing nothing all day is toxic and frankly false. The reality is that the vast majority of people on welfare want to get off welfare (most consider it embarrassing due to the large amounts of stigma around it). Most got into their present situation due to factors outside of their control, and therefore holding what is essentially a gun to their head and saying "get a job or else" won't help them. Instead we should assist these people with job-retraining programs.
ReplyDeleteAlthough these cuts would likely not see much benefit for both the unemployed and other places the money would be going, I do think that the US currently spends too much money on social services. However, it would definitely be wrong to put any more spending into military and security. Those sectors already see a considerable portion of the US budget each year, and can surely function without an increase. Currently the social welfare programs in the US are inefficient, perhaps a reorganization of these programs can fix a lot of the budget problems.
ReplyDeleteNo, I do not think Trump is justified in cutting social security benefits so we can kill people overseas. What are we going to war for if we can’t even take care of our own citizens? I don’t think Trump’s plan to fix employment will work because retraining has success rates from 0-15%. Also,even if people are employed, the employment rate doesn’t demonstrate how well somebody is doing, somebody could have 2-3 jobs and still be struggling to pay their bills. I would emphasize vocational jobs and discourage people going to college and into debt. Only 6% of American high school students being enrolled in a vocational program (in 2013), whereas comparable European nations have numbers closer to 50%.
ReplyDeleteI do not think it is justified that Trump is cutting back welfare spending because of his original promises to protect those policies. As for his new plans about limiting welfare for the unemployed, I don’t think that they were will as well as he hopes because it has been done before with little success and is based on a false ideal. While I agree that the current welfare programs are inefficient, I don’t think money cuts would help fix the problem.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think Trump’s plan is a very viable option. First, while cutting spending on these programs will save a lot of money, the swiftness at which the money is being pulled will only be detrimental to those who depend on it. Trump’s argument for example in regards to the physically disabled could prove to backfire very hard. Those plagued by physical injury already will have a tough time finding a suitable job that will cover the health benefits and requirements they need in order to live a sustainable life. The money given to them by these welfare programs may be vital to their life’s balance. In addition moving the funding allocations to military spending and border control is a wrong placement of money, in my opinion. Currently, tensions are running high between the US and Iran, and that is just one broken relationship. While this situation could be interpreted to increasing military spending, I would argue that it could probe Iran to become more defensible themselves. Trump’s economic plan seems to emphasize keeping external threats neutralized while disregarding current problems infecting the country.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that cutting the budget for social services will be effective in encouraging employment. Yes, it will save money, but as someone who has never experienced poverty, Trump likely does not understand the underlying causes of unemployment, and instead places the blame on laziness or lack of motivation. Forcing people to get a job is not the way to go, and will simply put even more stress on the people searching for the job. In many cases, it is extremely difficult, especially for the disabled, to simply "find a job," so this plan, in my opinion, would ultimately cause more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he's justified at all. Passing policies such as these simply support a mentality that unemployment is entirely the fault of the unemployed, when in many situations that isn't the case. While yes, cutting funding for food stamps and other welfare programs will put more pressure on people who were using or depending on them, that pressure is unlikely to actually make any significant change on unemployment levels, and will only serve to be unnecessary pressure that stresses out people who could previously depend on social welfare. I don't agree with Trump shifting funding towards defense and military, either, as there is already a considerable amount of funding in defense and these quality of life reductions will not be helping to garner any sort of support for his policies.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that Trump's reasoning is sound as simply giving individuals on welfare the "motivation" to join the workforce is not beneficial at all in comparison to the resources that they need to sustain themselves and their families. This judgement shows a lack of concern for the American people who are struggling, as Trump essentially wants people to figure things out themselves without financial support. This counterintuitive process may very well prove to be unsuccessful as people are receiving even less aid than the minimal amount of resources that they currently obtain. Instead of giving unemployed people "motivation" by cutting their funds, the government ought to emphasize reforming educational programs so that these individuals can obtain employable skills that is marketable for the workforce.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that Trump is justified in cutting social welfare programs as he is simply punishing the unemployed and forcing them to find jobs. This demonstrates that his tactic that he claims will "help people" is only going to cause mores stress and financial hardship because that initial funding from welfare would be taken away. Even though it will save money, there is more than enough spending that Trump has been investing into military funding. Instead of focusing on the defense system of America, Trump should focus on helping the American people in order to attain a sustainable future. Cutting welfare programs will only hurt the unemployed and create more distress within the struggling class in America.
ReplyDeleteTrump's reasoning is heavily flawed in this instance. People depend on welfare to get themselves back into the work force and sustain their families while they get back to a stable level of income. I believe that this shows he does not care about people and only about the higher classes of people. He has provided any alternatives to the lower classes and less fortunate.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above that Trump is not justified in cutting social welfare in order to allocate the money towards the military. In my opinion, the military is already overfunded, and cutting money fo social programs and support will only increase unemployment and Trump is making dangerous generalizations by assuming that those who need welfare are just lazy and that they need to work harder. Sometimes those who work the hardest are unable to make a livable wage because they lack the opportunity to grow. To help the unemployed find jobs, he should allocate more money to resources and transition programs that help people with other factors of living, such as housing and childcare. That way, individuals can focus on finding a steady job that is more longterm rather than a quick job just to pay the bills.
ReplyDeleteAs large as our military spending already is, I think it is ridiculous to allocate more funds to it, especially at the cost of social welfare services as those are things he promised to preserve and protect during his campaign. It sounds as though he is only trying to push the numerical value of unemployment down so he has some sort of "accomplishment," as he proudly boasted about in his State of the Union Address, even if it is at the cost of underlying but important factors. It worries me that there are many underread and underinformed individuals in the population who see his numbers about decreased unemployment and think our president is doing us good. Encouraging the disabled to become employed whether through extraneous encouragement or by reducing their social welfare services in order to make the presidency look stronger or more effective is not something that I would like the leader of our country doing.
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