Social Policy Domestic Policy Unit

Health & Public Assistance Domestic Policy "We can never insure one- hundred percent of the population against one-hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life. But we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age. This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built, but is by no means complete.... It is...a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, August 14, 1935

Social Policy Affecting the living conditions conducive to human welfare…

Social Security

 Federal Old-Age, Survivors, & Disability Insurance Program (OASDI)  Deducted from your paycheck (FICA)  22% of the federal budget went to Social Security in 2012

Social Security Benefits  Retirement  You can retire at 62 and take less money or wait until full retirement at 67  Spouse’s Benefit  Any current spouse and an ex-spouse of a marriage that lasted at least 10 years  Widow/Widower Benefits  Children’s Benefit  Disability Benefit  If you cannot continue in your job  Supplemental Security Insurance  Severely disabled children may be eligible

Unemployment Insurance  Added to the Social Security law  If you are involuntarily laid off you can claim unemployment benefits from your state  Employers fund this by paying a tax

Medicare  Added to Social Security in 1965  21% of the federal budget went to Medicare in 2012  Provides health care for nearly 48 million elderly people  Medicare Explained Video Medicare Explained Video  Medicade & CHIP  Supply insurance for approximately 60 million low income children and adults

Medicaid  Designed to pay hospital, doctor, and other medical bills for poor people  49.5 million Americans in 2012  Non-discretionary program  What is the incentive to try and keep costs low?

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)  Formerly known as “Food Stamps”Food Stamps  Attempt to increase the food buying power of low income Americans  Program starts in 1961  1961: 367,000 people on food stamps  2012: 46,000,000  Corey Booker’s Food Stamp ChallengeFood Stamp Challenge

Stem Cell Research Social Policy

Stem Cell Research  Microscopic cells that are the “building blocks of life”  They can develop into MANY different cell types in the body  They can act as “repair” cells  Why might some groups argue that the government should not fund research using embryonic stem cells? Why might some groups argue that the government should not fund research using embryonic stem cells?  What might scientists say to these groups? What might scientists say to these groups?

Social Policy SAME SEX MARRIAGE

Federal Defense of Marriage (DOMA) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton (1996) ◦Section 1. Short title ◦This Act may be cited as the "Defense of Marriage Act". ◦Section 2. Powers reserved to the states ◦No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.Section ◦3. Definition of marriage (ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court)(ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) ◦In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Geography of Same Sex Marriage LINK FOR CURRENT DATALINK FOR CURRENT DATA Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

PA Defense of Marriage Similar DOMA laws exist today in PA ◦July Attorney General Kathleen Kane says that she will not defend PA’s DOMA law ◦July Bruce Haines (Montco Register of Wills) begins to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples ◦August 2013 – PA Department of Health sues Bruce Haines to force him to stop issuance of marriage licenses to same sex couples