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Time for Welfare Reform II.
YES, the welfare-reform bill of 1996 was one of the stunning conservative success stories of this generation. It has cut the welfare caseloads in most states by half, while requiring that most beneficiaries of traditional cash-assistance welfare work. And yes, liberals--from Ted Kennedy to the Children's Defense Fund--who claimed that welfare reform would have disastrous effects were dead wrong, in every dire prediction. There is even encouraging evidence that out-of-wedlock teenage births, America's number-one social pathology, have started to decline as teenage girls have gotten the message that having a child is no longer an easy way to a government check.
But the job of welfare reform is not nearly done. Congressman Ernest Istook of Oklahoma has made it his personal mission in life to fix the still-gaping holes in welfare reform that discourage work, marriage, and economic self-sufficiency and instead encourage dependency and cheating. Istook recently compiled some disheartening statistics about welfare spending at the federal level. It's way up when you consider the panoply of means-tested programs. Many members of Congress forget that welfare is not just one federal program but more than 30 separate handouts, including food stamps, Medicaid, child-care subsidies, home-heating assistance, and cash-income supplements. A few years ago, a Cato Institute study calculated the "value" of the whole package of welfare benefits and found that in some states a worker would have to find a job that paid more than $30,000 a year to match it.
Since 2000, welfare payments have skyrocketed. Part of this is a result of the recession, but part is a result of cracks in the welfare laws, which have been exploited by welfare cheats. For example, as Istook points out, although we require work for traditional cash-welfare assistance, there is no work requirement for Medicaid or food stamps in most states, and these are two of the programs with the fastest increases in caseloads since 2000.
Recent reports by the Office of ...
- Welfare Reform Law Hits Food Stamps
- Newspaper article from: Oakland Post November 13, 1996 700+ words
...11-13-1996 Welfare Reform Law Hits Food Stamps. The California...of the federal welfare reform law enacted on...the new federal welfare reform law," said Eloise...Social Services. "Food stamps remain a 100...
- Making food stamps part of welfare reform.(includes related article on cost...
- Magazine article from: Policy & Practice of Public Human Services Besharov, Douglas J. Germanis, Peter June 1, 1999 700+ words
...recipients get food stamps, only about one...elderly.) With welfare reform, however, the...that providing food stamps without a work...requirement undermines welfare reform because it sends...availability of food stamps without a work...next stage of ...
- Single mothers, emergency food assistance, and food stamps in the welfare...
- Magazine article from: Journal of Consumer Affairs Bartfeld, Judi December 22, 2003 700+ words
...to concurrent use of food stamps among single-mother...than a supplement, to food stamps, despite appearing...caseload declines in the welfare reform years...or an alternative to food stamps and other public assistance...
- Food stamps to end for 51,500 single adults Series: WELFARE REFORM // IMPACT ON...
- Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times TIM NOVAK December 16, 1996 700+ words
...Thomas Ayala has survived with the help of food stamps. Ayala gets $120 a month in food stamps, the only welfare benefit he has received...federal reforms bar single adults from getting food stamps for more than three months in a three...
- Charities urge restoring food stamps for immigrants.(Nation)
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times Wetzstein, Cheryl January 19, 1998 700+ words
...job" and restore food stamps to nearly 1 million...lost to them under welfare reform," Ms. Carr said. Until food stamps are returned to immigrants...legal immigrants lost food stamps because of welfare reform. The maximum individual...
- Squeezing Kollel Students: Cuts in food stamps could harm families of
- Newspaper article from: The Jewish Week Eric J. Greenberg August 9, 1996 700+ words
...Students: Cuts in food stamps could harm families...of a radical welfare reform bill is expected...in the area of food stamps, which the families...government. The welfare reform bill calls for substantial cuts in food stamps for working poor...
- With food stamps carved, immigrants say cupboard bare.
- Newspaper article from: The Boston Herald Slager, Robert November 27, 1997 700+ words
...nationwide lost their food stamps when Congress passed the welfare reform act in August 1996...to $24 in state food stamps a month, a cut...eligible for federal food stamps). He gets $24...talked about the welfare reform act," said MIRA...
- Legal immigrant can keep getting food stamps until April.(Originated from...
- Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Farragher, Thomas October 3, 1996 700+ words
...are new applicants for food stamps. California counties are...California now receive food stamps. The food-stamp provisions of welfare reform, which have received less...penalties on states that give food stamps to people who are actually...
Source: HighBeam Research, Time for Welfare Reform II.