I must disagee. The Welfare system does NOT make our country great. Quite the opposite. While we should have a basic social net to support those who truly need it (such as poor elderly), the Welfare system, as an institution, encourages and, in fact, rewards sloth and irresponsibility. The vast majority of people on welfare are young or middle aged, and nearly 1/3 of them are illegal aliens. The welfare system itself, as it is designed, allows this. It is deeply corrupt and inefficient. Cheating is only part of the problem.
The US taxpayer has footed the bill for welfare for DECADES and we as a nation have almost nothing to show for it. Minorities who have been economically successful over the last 40 years have done so OUTSIDE of the welfare system, not because of it.
But reforming the welfare system would require genuine backbone in Congress. Our nation has become so feminized, so averse to discipline, that I doubt it will ever happen. Congress fears the poor and the politically correct. We live in a Tyranny of the Unproductive.
Please provide the numbers and sources.