Kennedy and the 'welfare state':
Welfare
- Unemployment and welfare benefits were expanded.[27]
- In 1961, Social Security benefits were increased by 20% and provision for early retirement was introduced, enabling workers to retire at the age of sixty-two while receiving partial benefits.[28]
- The Social Security Amendments of 1961 permitted male workers to elect early retirement age 62, increased minimum benefits, liberalized the benefit payments to aged widow, widower, or surviving dependent parent, and also liberalized eligibility requirements and the retirement test.[29]
- The 1962 amendments to the Social Security Act authorized the federal government to reimburse states for the provision of social services.[30]
- The School Lunch Act was amended for authority to begin providing free meals in poverty-stricken areas.[5]
- A pilot food stamp program was launched (1961), covering six areas in the United States. In 1962, the program was extended to eighteen areas, feeding 240,000 people.[31]
- Various school lunch and school milk programs were extended, “enabling 700,000 more children to enjoy a hot school lunch and eighty-five thousand more schools, child care centers, and camps to receive fresh milk”.[31]
- ADC was extended to whole families (1961).[32]
- Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) replaced the Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) program, as coverage was extended to adults caring for dependent children.[31]
- A major revision of the public welfare laws was carried out, with a $300 million modernisation which emphasised rehabilitation instead of relief”.[6]
- A temporary antirecession supplement to unemployment compensation was introduced.[6]
- Food distribution to needy Americans was increased.[6] In January 1961, the first executive order issued by Kennedy mandated that the Department of Agriculture increase the quantity and variety of foods donated for needy households. This executive order represented a shift in the Commodity Distribution Programs’ primary purpose, from surplus disposal to that of providing nutritious foods to low-income households.[33]
- Social Security benefits were extended to an additional five million Americans.[27]
- The Self-Employed Individuals Tax Retirement Act (1962) provided self-employed people with a tax postponement for income set aside in qualified pension plans.[29]
- The Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 provided for greater Federal sharing in the cost of rehabilitative services to applicants, recipients, and persons likely to become applicants for public assistance. It increased the Federal share in the cost of public assistance payments, and permitted the States to combine the various categories into one category. The amendments also made permanent the 1961 amendment which extended aid to dependent children to cover children removed from unsuitable homes.[29]
- Federal funds were made available for the payment of foster care costs for AFDC-eligible children who had come into state custody.[34]
- An act was approved (1963) which extended for one year the period during which responsibility for the placement and foster care of dependent children, under the program of aid to families with dependent children under Title IV of the Social Security Act.[29]
- Federal civil service retirement benefits were index-linked to changes in the Consumer Price Index (1962).
Any conservatives here on board that agenda?
You operate under the false assumption that the right isn't willing to help the poor. Could not be further from the truth. Notice that he wanted the welfare program geared toward rehabilitation (welfare to work) and tax postponement for self-employed.
There is no argument when it comes to helping the poor. Biggest difference between the parties is that one wants to actually get people out of poverty instead of keeping them there to ensure votes.
There is no problem using federal funds for necessities. The important thing is that we are actually solving the problems instead of throwing more and more money at it in a way that makes it bigger.
Too many people now ask what their country can do for them. Actually, it's more of a demand these days. They think they are entitled to receive without ever having to give back. That mentality is dangerous and the left loves it because people are addicted to government.