Entitlement Programs, Deficit, Cutting, Social Security

          Entitlement programs began in 1965 with the Social Security Act but the idea had been around as early as 1912 with Theodore Roosevelt.  During times of national economic crisis, the Great Depression for example, people have always look to the government to solve their problems and increase their standard of living.  In a time when people were hesitant to accept money from the government, this was not as much of a problem.  However, times change and so do people; “Federal outlays grew by over $2.2 trillion between 1990 and 2010. Over one third of this growth came from Social Security and Medicare.”  With such a dramatic increase in entitlement programs, it is no wonder that the current national debt is above 15 trillion dollars.  Furthermore, because these are entitlement programs, the amount the federal government spends on these programs is entirely dependent on how many people apply and qualify; there is no perfect way to plan this spending.  Although Congress has already made cuts in a variety of areas, public education comes to mind, this is not enough, Congress needs to cut entitlement programs and tighten the requirements to qualify for federal aid.  

          Over the past several decades, as money spent on entitlement programs has increased so has the national debt.  Some may argue that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are to blame, however, since the institution of social security and later medicare and medicaid, discretionary spending has accounted for a vast part of the budget.  

          Now, this argument may seem heartless, or like the ranting of an upper-middle class conservative, because, as I’m sure many people would argue, there are millions of people who need that money, and its true--there are many people who need the money that the government sends to them every month. However, in addition to the millions of people who need federal aid because of disability or recent layoffs, there are also millions of people who have no intention of getting a job, or improving their circumstances--those people should not receive money earned by people who work hard and pay taxes.  To remain eligible for entitlement programs, people need to show significant efforts to better themselves and their situation by proving that they have made efforts to obtain a job, or show that they have done something to practice good money management techniques such as saving money or adding to a savings account.  As of right now however, it would seem that the only requirement necessary to qualify for unemployment is to show that a person has been discharged from employment through no fault of their own.  By making the requirements for unemployment, the government will make it less of an entitlement and more a program where people will have to ‘work’ to earn the money by showing that they have made a substantial effort to become employed.  

        Despite the growing necessity for cuts to entitlement programs, with the overhaul of the health care system, it would seem that instead of cutting these programs, Congress is interested in expanding them--however due to substantial disagreement regarding the health care bill, it may not survive in its original form.  Yet this shows an increasing problem where the federal government is interested in expanding entitlement programs rather than cutting them, thus increasing the deficit rather than reducing it.