The Welfare State: Ethical Foundations and Constitutional Remedies

Abstract

In 1935, the United States Congress enacted and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the basic titles of the social security system, thus taking the revolutionary step into the welfare state. Yet, there was hardly a sense of revolution anywhere in the United States. Although there was some fear in that summer that violence might erupt if Congress remained inactive, there were no deep social class or sectional divisions over the welfare state despite the novelty or the scale of commitment. The political struggle in Congress was not over whether to have a welfare state but over what kind of program it would be. In 1965, Congress adopted Medicare and Medicaid. These were the two largest expansions since 1935, and they were going to continue expanding very fast because of the method of third-party financing whereby the doctor and the patient agreed on the service and the government underwrote the charges. In 1969, Congress expanded the food stamp program and made it a regular, rather than experimental, part of the system of comprehensive social support. This meant that three of the largest commitments the United States ever made to the welfare state were made as maturity was approaching (which for any pension or insurance system is thirty-forty years); were commitments to persons structurally outside the work force; and were made at the moment when the ratio of taxpayers to welfare beneficiaries had dropped from 18-1 to less than 4-1.