Quote:
Originally posted by Rodeo
At its peak in 1996, Aid to Families with Dependent Children -- the main government program providing income assistance to the poor -- had a caseload of 4.55 million families. It is now less than half that.
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The caseload is half, but the federal welfare budget (now called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) has risen every year! The problem is that many of the states refuse to honor the restrictions outlined by Clintons welfare reform bill. If a family has been on welfare for more than 5 years, for example, the state will no longer list the family on the federal caseload, but the checks still come. The following graph does not include the TANF supplemental budgets which have also increased yearly.
Clinton tried to do a good thing. A very good thing, His work has been undermined by his own party at the state level. The welfare burden is now shifting from the federal budget to the state budgets where our free-wheeling legislators can provide cash assistance to the homeless with absolutely no documentation.