Welfare Redux
Via the Cincy Enquirer comes this report on the state of welfare:
The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs for the poor, including Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits, are bursting with new enrollees.
The result, according to an Associated Press analysis: Nearly one in six people rely on some form of public assistance, a larger share than at any time since the government started measuring two decades ago….
[Bush administration official Wade] Horn noted that employment among poor single mothers is up and child poverty rates are down since the welfare changes in 1996, though the numbers have worsened since the start of the decade….
"The true goal of welfare to work programs should be self-sufficiency."
Back in 2000, Reason's Mike Lynch reported on how welfare reform was actually working (or not) in the mean streets of Camden, New Jersey. Read that here.