"The U.S. government this year spent over $900 billion on 70 different means-tested welfare programs. These programs (not including Social Security, Medicare, or Unemployment Insurance) provide cash, food, housing, medical care, and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans.
[GOP: Drug Tests for Unemployment Applicants.]
But welfare assistance should not be a one-way handout or open-ended entitlement. We ought to provide such aid on the basis of reciprocal obligation. Taxpayers should provide support to those in need; recipients, in return, should engage in responsible and constructive behavior as a condition of receiving aid.
Requiring welfare recipients to stop using illegal drugs is a core element of reciprocal obligation. And it's a real issue."-Robert Rector