At one point in the Star Wars double trilogy, the
character who starts out as a corrupt politician but morphs into an
evil Sith Lord announces the suspension of the Republic in favor of
the First Galactic Empire. Last week, President Obama did just that
in regard to the American republic.
You didn't hear about that? The party-controlled media in Star Wars didn't report the event either.
Bipartisan Welfare Reform One of the greatest bipartisan policy successes of recent decades was the 1996 welfare reform of the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, enacted into law by the then Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton. The 1996 AFDC reforms returned the share of federal spending on the program to each state in the form of a "block grant" to be used in a new welfare program redesigned by the state based on mandatory work for the able bodied. Federal funding for AFDC previously was based on a matching formula, with the federal government giving more to each state the more it spent on the program, effectively paying the states to spend more on welfare. The key to the 1996 reforms was that the new block grants to each state were finite, not matching, so the federal funding did not vary with the amount the state spent. If a state's new program cost more, the state had to pay the extra costs itself. If the program cost less, the state could keep the savings.
With those reversed incentives for the state bureaucrats running the program, the reform was shockingly successful, exceeding even the predictions of its most ardent supporters. The old AFDC rolls were reduced by two-thirds nationwide, even more in states that pushed work most aggressively. The reformed program was renamed Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/18/obama-retracts-clinton-welfare
You didn't hear about that? The party-controlled media in Star Wars didn't report the event either.
Bipartisan Welfare Reform One of the greatest bipartisan policy successes of recent decades was the 1996 welfare reform of the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, enacted into law by the then Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton. The 1996 AFDC reforms returned the share of federal spending on the program to each state in the form of a "block grant" to be used in a new welfare program redesigned by the state based on mandatory work for the able bodied. Federal funding for AFDC previously was based on a matching formula, with the federal government giving more to each state the more it spent on the program, effectively paying the states to spend more on welfare. The key to the 1996 reforms was that the new block grants to each state were finite, not matching, so the federal funding did not vary with the amount the state spent. If a state's new program cost more, the state had to pay the extra costs itself. If the program cost less, the state could keep the savings.
With those reversed incentives for the state bureaucrats running the program, the reform was shockingly successful, exceeding even the predictions of its most ardent supporters. The old AFDC rolls were reduced by two-thirds nationwide, even more in states that pushed work most aggressively. The reformed program was renamed Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/18/obama-retracts-clinton-welfare
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