Endangered Welfare Reform

Most bureaucrats make a virtue of obfuscation, but the Department of Health and Human Services has taken that tendency to new heights with a recent “Information Memorandum” easing the requirements of the 1996 welfare-reform law. To hear President Obama’s supporters tell it, the administration is simply tweaking the hugely popular and largely successful law. Opponents, on the other hand, believe that the administration is preparing to shred a bill painstakingly written, duly passed, and, over time, reauthorized by an elected Congress. Given the history of poverty policy in the United States and the modus operandi of the current president, it’s probably best to hope for the former but assume the latter.
Here’s what everyone agrees on about the memorandum. HHS has invited interested states to apply for waivers to the welfare-reform law, allowing them to “test alternative and innovative strategies, policies and procedures” to “improve employment outcomes.” The memo explains that “the Secretary is interested in using her authority to approve waiver demonstrations to challenge states to engage in a new round of innovation that seeks to find more effective mechanisms for helping families succeed in employment.” Who could object? Just about everyone wants to “improve employment outcomes.” And Republicans, in particular, like waivers when they devolve more control to the states, giving them power to experiment and innovate.

Read more: http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0722kh.html