A New Look at Welfare Reform
Whatever happened with welfare reform? The Village Voice looks at new numbers out of the Congressional Budget Office, and concludes that many former welfare recipients may have simply moved to other assistance programs.
A new report by the Congressional Budget Office finds that even as AFDC/TANF (the former Aid to Families with Dependent Children program was renamed Temporary Assistance to Needy Families by the '96 act) shrank, other federal benefits programs-like the earned income tax credit (EITC), Food Stamps, Medicaid, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)- swelled.
Although the article acknowledges that more statistical analysis is needed on the issue, it at least looks like the numbers are troubling for those interested in reducing poverty.
The people who left AFDC could be different from the folks who've recently enrolled in SSI or Food Stamps. And even if they are the same people, getting Food Stamps or SSI might be an improvement over receiving AFDC. But it doesn't seem like the "self-sufficiency" the White House boasts about. It seems like welfare reform has done no better than welfare at curing the underlying problem, which, once upon a time, was called "poverty."
Written By:sandy On May 3, 2005 3:07 AM
Post A Comment / Question
I wonder when our leadership is going to realize that many people just don't have the skills to get and keep a job, nomatter how little they will work for.
By the end of the 21st century, probably much sooner, macines will do all those jobs, and do them well.. much better than humans could do them.