Chart of the Week: The Fragmented Federal Welfare System
Religion & Liberty Online

Chart of the Week: The Fragmented Federal Welfare System

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimates that there are currently over 80 federal programs that provide food, housing, healthcare, job training, education, energy assistance, and cash to low-income Americans. How do they fit together to serve the poor?

During a hearing on Tuesday about better coordinating welfare programs to serve families in need, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee provided the following chart (click to enlarge).

House-Ways-and-Means-Committee-Graphic-11_4_2015-e1446650064878
Confused? You’re not the only one. As Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) says,

What it shows is, in short, a mess. This system may have started out with good intentions, but it has become a confusing maze of programs that are overlapping, duplicative, poorly coordinated, and difficult to administer. I defy anyone to say this is the best way to address the human tragedy so many of our fellow citizens experience.

(Via: AEI Ideas)

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).