The national government’s fiscal budget is over $5.5 trillion, which is not only an incredible amount of money, but also lends itself to asking the question as to how efficient that government is, in the expenditures of that money, so meant to be for the benefit of its constituents. We read, for instance, at heritage.org, that “Adjusted for inflation, welfare spending has increased more than twelvefold since the start of the War on Poverty in 1964.” The fact that welfare spending has increased twelvefold since 1964, and yet we see all around us, the continuation of many a person and family, still struggling with their day-to-day needs for adequate nutrition, healthcare, and housing assistance, presupposes that quite obviously there has to be some significant flaws and inefficiencies in the operation of our current welfare system, which hurts both those that are taxpayers to it, as well as those that are recipients of such.
The problem with governmental programs and the sheer gargantuan size of some of these programs, in addition to all of the “red tape” and bureaucracy that is both long-established and systemic to them, is that what we so currently have, cannot and is not even close to being efficient in what it is supposed to actually accomplish. That is to say, the worth of any program, in which billions upon billions of dollars are expended year-after-year, has got to be, whether or not, this country is actually making progress through any of its welfare programs, to ameliorate issues that are detrimental to the people that so need them. The short answer would appear to be, that the administration of the welfare and the assistance, thereof, is a real disappointment, to just about everyone, though, no doubt, there are exceptions to this.
Sometimes, it has to be said, that emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can bring forth the type of response, which absolutely proves the point that this government really does know the identities of its people and therefore how to actually effectively put food and money into their hands. For a certainty, this type of quick and efficient response to a national emergency, demonstrates that when this government really wants to get things done, and is thereby less concerned about welfare fraud as well as not being overly concerned that the welfare aid so being doled out has to be restricted to being absolutely needs-base, can actually get it done.
All the hoops and hurdles, paperwork, and endless interactions or interrogations, in which many a poor person feels that they are being seen by those agencies that are meant to help them, as pretty much nothing much more than a burden, could seemingly be overcome during this pandemic, in which the response to those that have the least amongst us, by that government, of, for, and by the people, was actually exemplary. This signifies that sometimes it is necessary to take what has been in operation for decades and to basically admit that the efficiencies of the program, along with its effectiveness are not actually working and rather than trying to amend such, by this and by that, it probably would be more straightforward to simplify such, by the replacement of what doesn’t work very well, by that which will get what is mandatory for a decent life into the hands of those that have so little, which will thus allow those that are the most unfortunate amongst us, to better access what they so need, along with also getting some much needed dignity.