by Rebecca Hightower

Created on: April 14, 2009

Welfare was established in the United States long before government regulation. British laws designed to aid the poor were implemented while the United States was just a colony. The Great Depression led to welfare change such as unemployment compensation, AFDC (Aid to Dependant Children) and eventually Medicaid, the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program and the most recognizable form of welfare (TANF), among other state and locally run programs.

Welfare is a wonderful tool meant to temporarily assist and supplement the income of those suffering a temporary financial setback. Unfortunately, many Americans and immigrant families have begun to see government aid as an entitlement, something for nothing and persist on relying on government benefits for extended periods of time.

Although I disagree with the proposed bill facing the Tennessee legislature which would limit the amount of the winnings for welfare recipients, I think the bill should read that recipients must have all prior welfare earnings from that fiscal year deducted from their winnings. If a Tennessee resident collected $11000 worth of Welfare benefits in a fiscal year prior to a lottery winning i claimed, that $11000 would need to be deducted from the amount of money received by the recipient.

This would be an equitable way to insure that you are not removing the possibility of any resident from becoming a millionaire, but that you send an equally valuable message that those on Welfare do owe a debt to society, and should have to pay it back upon becoming a millionaire.

The idea of welfare dollars being misspent is not new, nor is it invalid. The American welfare system is funded by hard working individuals who want to make sure that if their neighbor or they themselves face a temporary hardship, they can make it through a small period of time without starving their children or losing their home. The same system that provides the winnings, should be reimbursed in the unlikely event of a lottery winning by a current welfare recipient.

Rather than be offended at the idea of limiting a welfare recipients potential lottery earnings, we as American citizens should be offended at the thought of someone on welfare playing the lottery. That one dollar buys a couple cans of vegetables, a pair of socks for their child, a liter of juice at the dollar store. There is no justification for that dollar to be spent on a lottery ticket, therefore there is no justification for not passing legislation to encourage welfare recipients to stay away from the lottery counter.

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