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CIAO DATE: 12/5/2006
Two Cheers for Welfare Reform
Douglas J. Besharov
August 2006
Abstract
It has been nearly ten years since President Bill Clinton signed the landmark 1996 welfare reform law. The anniversary has been the occasion for various news stories and opinion pieces, most of them praising the law’s success in reducing welfare dependency.
And it is true: welfare caseloads have fallen an astounding 60 percent since reform efforts began. But even as a strong supporter of welfare reform, I find it difficult to muster unqualified enthusiasm for the law and how it has been implemented.
In the years immediately before the law’s passage, welfare dependency seemed out of control. Between 1989 and 1994, for example, caseloads rose a worrisome 34 percent. Analysts argued over how much to blame the weak economy, worsening social problems (primarily nonmarital births and drug addiction), and lax agency administration. But few claimed that another 1.3 million people on welfare was a good thing.