This paper examines the U.S. social insurance system, which we define broadly to include both programs supported by dedicated taxes and other federal programs that provide income support, assistance in meeting basic needs, or services to improve economic opportunity. The paper considers the social insurance system as a whole as well as its…

This volume contains the second half of part 1 of a 4-part compendium of information about low income assistance programs plus the remaining 3 parts of the compendium. Part 1 contains detailed information about 59 major federally supported public assistance programs, each of which annually spent over $20 million in fiscal year 1985, and applied a…