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August 29, 2006
Welfare Reform
10 years ago this month, President Clinton took one of the few major risks of his presidency, infuriating Democrats and giving Republicans a reason to hope. He signed the welfare-reform package, requiring those who could, to work.
The impact has been dramatic. Welfare caseloads have dropped 60%, from 1993 to 2000 single mothers with jobs jumped to 75 percent, from 58 percent. Child poverty rates dropped every year from 1994 to 2000.
Love President Clinton or hate him (is there anyone in between?), give credit where credit is due – welfare reform was a good thing.
Comments
While I am not a Clinton fan, this is one of the things he did that I really like. What do you feel is the right approach today to continue to reduce the number of people who need welfare.
Posted by: at September 1, 2006 07:58 AM
No question. The New Society's "War on Poverty" just perpetuated poverty. It took Clinton to call the bluff of those who said that ending "welfare as we know it" would be a disaster. The opposite happened: The vast majority of people who'd been on welfare managed to find work once they saw that welfare wasn't an indefinite entitlement. How many of the other ossified Great Society programs might we similarly end "as we know them" in order to actually start improving people's lives?
Posted by: Steve at August 29, 2006 11:22 AM