Before Lyndon Johnson left the White House in 1969, it had already become apparent that his War on Poverty had resulted in some harmful, unintended consequences–especially increases in illegitimacy and dependency on government. As of 2022, about 40% of births in America were out of wedlock, and nearly half of all American children were receiving some form of public assistance.
Since 2003, about half of the births in Arizona have been paid for by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s version of Medicaid. This is unsustainable.
Government at any level should not compel taxpayers to do things for strangers that they would not do even for their own children. I believe that most parents would not tolerate drug use, sexual promiscuity, or membership in criminal street gangs by children still dependent on them financially. The state has no right to use tax money to subsidize such irresponsible or criminal behavior.
It is family, friends, neighbors, and philanthropic organizations that should play the largest roles in charity work, not government. With rare exceptions such as natural disasters or acts of war, I feel that the federal government has no business engaging in charity work. The Welfare State is one of the things that have hurt America the most over the last 60 years. It has greatly undermined Americans’ self-reliance and cost many trillions of dollars. It is imperative that America work patiently and consistently to shrink and eventually eliminate federal public welfare programs.
America should strive to be the best place possible for people who live within the law and pay their own way. Public policies guided by fiscal responsibility, law and order, and less government would help achieve that.
Paid for by John J Lyon for US Senate
john j lyon 
I do not see the welfare system doing what you have claimed. Yes there are some drug addicts and others that do not”deserve” the freebies they are given. But that mean we should let them starve or become homeless? I think it would serve us much better to have mandatory drug and alcohol tests on those that are receiving welfare of any kind.
I love the way California has their system set up when I lived there. Anyone that got aid had to also work for that aid. They had to work in positions that would otherwise have paid much more if they had gotten the job on their own. For example, have them work cleaning up the highways or something like that and pay them 50% of what the job would pay if they actually went to work. So say they were put to work on cleaning the highways and the job itself normally paid $15 an hour and that person got $1000 a month in welfare they would need to work for 133 hours for something that someone that had the real job would work only half that amount of time for the same amount of value.
Those ideas make much more sense than telling a person they matter none to anyone and therefore can starve or not get medical help or be homeless.