The US government should end welfare

Thank you for accepting the challenge Strikeeagle84015. I look forward to an interesting debate. Good luck! Feel free to reiterate your argument in the last two rounds. The important point is that no refutation is allowed in the second round. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is the assistance program commonly known as welfare. This program provides cash payments to low-income families with children.[1] The goal of welfare is to reduce child poverty and help their parents in becoming self-sufficient. I believe that the government should not end welfare. I believe this for three different reasons. 1. Welfare is designed to help children. Child poverty has a large number of negative effects on children. Studies have shown that kids who grow up in poverty experience a much higher risk of health problems, a greater chance of educational difficulties, and have a tendency to develop poor social skills.[2] These problems will haunt them all the way into adulthood, and will frequently prevent them from achieving their full potential in life.[3] Furthermore, children have no control over the circumstances of their birth, and they can do very little to influence the behavior of their parents. They are born into poverty through no fault of their own. So, they have no moral obligation to suffer through it. Why should kids have to live in poverty just because they were born to the wrong parents? I don't believe they should. Ending welfare would put innocent children through unnecessary suffering, so it should not be done. That's the first reason. 2. Welfare embodies the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence[4] and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[5] Both of these documents are partly based on the idea that all people have equal worth. Businesses already receive more aid[6] than poor people do. What kind of message would it send if the government got rid of welfare, while continuing to subsidize business? What would it say about us if created a country where some people had no money to buy food and clothes, while others had more than they could ever spend? It sends the message that people are not equal. That some lives, the lives of the rich and powerful, are more valuable than the lives of the poor. Ending welfare would violate the equality principles that the Declaration of Independence and Universal Declaration of Human Rights are based on. This is the second reason why welfare should not be ended. 3. Welfare helps to stop crime. Studies have shown[7] that crime increases at the end of the month when welfare recipients tend to run out of money. Imagine that welfare was ended. Currently, there 5.5 applicants competing for each job[8] so not everyone will be able to get one. What will people do if they can't find a job, and they can't get any welfare payments? They will probably begin selling drugs, robbing pedestrians and stealing from stores. For this reason, it's reasonable to assume that abolishing welfare would lead to a dramatic increase in crime rates. So, not only does welfare help poor children and families, it also protects communities from crime. That's the last reason why I believe welfare should not be ended. 1. http://www.acf.hhs.gov... 2. http://www.nccp.org... 3. http://www.nccp.org... 4. http://en.wikisource.org... 5. http://www.un.org... 6. http://www.ombwatch.org... 7. http://www.voxeu.org... 8. http://www.chron.com...