This is an embarrassing diary to write. I remember when Welfare Reform passed - I remember thinking it was a cave to the worst of America - to the ongoing war on the poor that has been going on since the moment Reagan put his hand on the Bible and took has oath of office. In 2008 Peter Edelmansaid something every bit as true today as it was then:
They don’t acknowledge the number of people who were hurt ...It’s just not in their lens. It was predictably bad public policy.” I remember Clinton saying she still supported in 2008. It was a factor in my own decision to support Edwards at the time: Obama agreed with Clinton in 2008. Since that time I had a vague sense that Welfare Reform was working, but in truth I didn't bother researching it very much. So today when this appeared in my twitter feed, I was appalled. What it describes is the extent to which Welfare Reform has given cover to an incredible shrinking of the safety net.There has yet to be a front page piece here on Welfare Reform and 2016 - that might take space from the latest from Trump or Carson. You would think - if we actually cared about the poor - that progressives would at least want to talk about existing policy. But the poor are invisible, and maybe people think the Welfare Reform fight is over and done and it doesn't matter.
If that is so shame on us.
But then this takes us back to Clinton, who, welfare advocates believed
Since entering the Senate, they say, she has shown a predilection for compromise at the expense of the poor. Sanders, of course, voted against Welfare Reform.If you are like me and most liberals and progressives, the term Welfare Reform makes us suspicious. But most of us have no idea what the hell it was.
Basically, there were three components to Welfare Reform: 1. Changing a Federal Entitlement under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF was distributed to states as block grant funds that did not have the previous rules and regulations that governed AFDC. If you are guessing the old rules acted to primarily protect the poor, you are dead right. 2. Mandating a time limitation for receiving welfare. 3. Enabling the States to write their own, often much more restrictive rules, around who could receive welfare.
This gets technical very fast. But the chart below documents the result. The number of poor familiar that are able to receive Welfare has plummeted. It is worth remembering that there are very real families with children that have been effected by this change. These are the poorest people in society, and the rug has been pulled out beneath them.
IT. WAS. AND. IS. EVIL
Welfare policy is complicated. There will always be tension about welfare as long as people who are working are paying for those who do not. But the vast majority of Americans once understood that it was necessary - a sign of the weakness of our system and not evidence of a character flaw in the poor.Welfare Reform was the dream of the DLC. It was an attack on the poor.
It survives virtually unquestioned.
We should be questing it.