Horton
English 1301-363
27 November 2012
Testing One Two Three In the current state of the American economy, needless spending is something the government needs to avoid at all costs. With some trillion dollars owed to various foreign countries, the United States literally cannot afford to pump money into programs that do not benefit the country as a whole. Michael Tanner, who is the Director of Health and Welfare studies at the Cato Institute, reports that this year the Federal government will spend 952,000,000,000 dollars on programs to help the poor (10). While some of this money goes to people who truly need it, there are many people that take advantage of the kindness of others. Robert Rector, who is the Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation, discovered in a study that one third of welfare recipients use illegal drugs. What the results of this study translate to is simple, that almost 300 billion dollars is fueling the drug habits of those who selfishly turn down assistance. In order to fully understand the nature of welfare programs it is important know the history behind them and the steps that can be taken by the average citizen to increase the effectiveness of said programs. Drug testing welfare candidates will save capital, discourage drug use in children, and stimulate the economy by preventing welfare users from using the government as a crutch instead enabling the recipient to become financial stable. In every country and civilization that has ever existed, there has and will always be an unequal spread of capital among the people. Governments have tried to establish balance in society by means of communism and socialism, but it is evident that these methods simply do not work. However, human ethics tells us that helping those in need is a virtue that must be performed. In our society, this virtue has manifested itself in the various welfare programs that the government funds with the money