President Obama on July 12 ended welfare reform, the crowning
achievement of the Republican Congress of 1996. That reform succeeded in
reducing the welfare rolls by almost half and was so popular with the
American people that Bill Clinton felt compelled to sign it.
The magic bullet that achieved this authentic reform was requiring able-bodied adults to work or at least prepare for work, as a condition of receiving taxpayer handouts. This requirement imposed on welfare recipients was not only good for the taxpayers, but it was also good for the recipients because it put them on the path to self-sufficiency and led to a decline in child poverty.
The welfare system that was formerly called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, AFDC, was retitled Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF. The change wasn't merely semantic; the plan was really to make welfare temporary, helping families to give up dependency on government.
Before 1996, there was nothing temporary about welfare. It was a permanent subsidy for a lifestyle that subsidized illegitimacy and avoidance of responsibility for individual behavior. Contrary to claims of those who opposed the new system, the dramatic success of the Republican welfare reform was due not to giving more flexibility to state governments but to putting tough restrictions on spending the money by the states.
Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2012/08/07/obama_sabotages_welfare_reform
The magic bullet that achieved this authentic reform was requiring able-bodied adults to work or at least prepare for work, as a condition of receiving taxpayer handouts. This requirement imposed on welfare recipients was not only good for the taxpayers, but it was also good for the recipients because it put them on the path to self-sufficiency and led to a decline in child poverty.
The welfare system that was formerly called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, AFDC, was retitled Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF. The change wasn't merely semantic; the plan was really to make welfare temporary, helping families to give up dependency on government.
Before 1996, there was nothing temporary about welfare. It was a permanent subsidy for a lifestyle that subsidized illegitimacy and avoidance of responsibility for individual behavior. Contrary to claims of those who opposed the new system, the dramatic success of the Republican welfare reform was due not to giving more flexibility to state governments but to putting tough restrictions on spending the money by the states.
Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2012/08/07/obama_sabotages_welfare_reform
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