Welfare

The number of people currently receiving welfare has dropped dramatically from past years. One of the reason for the successful drop in number is due to the restructuring of the welfare program itself. In 1996 the program was renamed TANF and placed restrictions on the program, the welfare system was no longer a just a check every month. Several restrictions were placed on welfare that made it successful, the recipient of welfare had to find work within two years and they were also limited to a total of five years of help in their life. This helped force the people on welfare to start looking for jobs and that following year the number amount of money given out dropped by 60%. They one side of this believes that this program is affective and serving its purpose. While the other side says that this program is still leaving some people out in the cold, arguing that poverty is still on the rise.







In my opinion a program like this is a very good thing its there for people when they need it, but it also encourages them to take care of themselves and to try and become self sufficient again. We're are not just handing out checks anymore we're making people do something to improve their lives. Some people argue that the jobs that these people can get are low paying and don't help them. Well I think that these people have to start somewhere those jobs are ways to gain work experience and career advancement. And what does just handing them a check every month really do to make a person able to provide for themselves??? IT DOESN'T! Everyone needs to work for everything they have and work their way up and TANF is away to help the people who slip, but can get back up. President Obama supports the idea of helping people when they slip but eventually having them stand on there own. http://www.ontheissues.org/Economic/Barack_Obama_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm















Two Other Issue Blogs:

http://gigaphone.blogspot.com/

http://oliviarice.blogspot.com/

Vaccine Recall

800,000 H1N1 vaccines are being recalled by the french company Sanofi Pasteur. The company is one of five major manufactures that supplies H1N1 vaccine to the United States. The reason for the recall is because the potency is about 12% less then what it should be. This vaccine in particular was meant for a specific age group in this case kids ages 6 months thru 35 months old. The vaccine wasn't called back because it wasn't safe and they say that if a child has had the shot not to worry. It was also stated that it does need to be more potent for it to work that this shot should still give the kids an immunity.

I really don't see this as a very big deal, the vaccine even though its less potent it will still get the job done. I can also see how a vaccine like this could have flaws in it. The pressure to get a H1N1 vaccine available to the public is immense, there is a huge scare that if you don't get a vaccine you're at risk of dying. When a company is placed on a time table for something like this they are pressured to produce a drug as fast as possible. So really the company did their job a because the vaccine serves the same purpose and works the same. The main thing that's most important is that this vaccine isn't a danger to the kids who have received the vaccine already. I also applaud the company for coming out and saying that the vaccine was under strength, this wasn't a demanded recall the CDC didn't say there was a problem with it. The company just wanted to put out the best product that they meant to make the first time they just didn't say that it was good enough.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/15/flu.vaccine.recall/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

Strides in Healthcare

On Wednesday the after much debate there was a deal met by the liberal and moderate democrates on the public option portion of the healthcare bill. The White House was extremely pleased in the progress of the healthcare bill and the compromise met on the public option portion. Several senators from all over the United States participated in the debate and help come to an agreement on public option. The goal of the public option is to create competition for the current health maintenance organizations that run our healthcare system.

I like to hear that we are making progress on the healthcare bill and that its not being bogged down in senate committees. As the world superpower I feel that we should have a strong healthcare system that takes care of it's citizens. Don't get me wrong I love the capitalist drive that we have in this country, the ability to make profit. But I also feel strongly that we should not be trying to make huge profit off our nations sick and dying. We should not have to worry about paying bills if you get sick, if you're sick you get the help you deserve. The way we have it now private insurance companies charge what they want, limit the patients options, and deny them proper medical coverage. We need to figure out what is going to happen to change our system and this compromise is on the road of this countries healthcare reform.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/09/health.care/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29