The structuring of the current U.S. system of welfare was intended to ease the circumstances of poverty for single-parent households. Though the welfare system does help to provide greatly needed assistance for low-income persons and their children, it also has brought unintended outcomes. TANF, its predecessor AFDC, in addition to the welfare system as a whole, has been the subject of much debate for many years regarding not only how but if it should be implemented. This discussion examines the U.S. welfare system, including its history, the issues surrounding it, and documents the failures and successes which have resulted. The national welfare system was created in the New Deal era of the 1930s and expanded into the 1970s. This extensive system was initially the result of the intersecting interests of the labor unions and reform-oriented capitalists in the depression years and, in later years, expanded further as a direct result of the Civil Rights Movement. The welfare system of the New Deal established workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance in addition to an assortment of public programs in an effort to assist those living in impoverished conditions. President Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty of the 1960s introduced programs such as Medicaid and Medicare and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). However, when the Reagan administration came to power in 1981, federal programs that previously provided assistance to the poor via the many forms of welfare were contracted and restructured in an effort to reverse the public policies of the New Deal and War on Poverty. With the stroke of a pen, the social gains achieved through intense political struggle were all but eliminated. (Coven, 2002). Welfare reform has transformed what was a federal hand-out program into more of a help-up system. It has decreased the number by half of those on the public dole and has enabled many to secure employment which not only alleviates child poverty but stimulates the economy as well. It accomplished this by instituting incentives for welfare recipients to seek employment, including the requirement to work, ending the financial incentive to have more children, and putting a time limit on the period of payments, so the program is a temporary stop-gap for families instead of a lifelong occupation. A work-oriented program, TANF is unlike the previous welfare system that was designed during the Depression to assist single mothers but grew into a massive entitlement program. The evidence of its success lies in the incredible decrease of persons participating in the welfare system. More than five million families participated in the AFDC just prior to the enactment of the TANF. This number decreased to approximately two million by the end of 2004. President Clinton signed the Personal Opportunity and Work Responsibility Act in August 1996. This law marked the end for the (AFDC) and substituted in its place the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which was reauthorized in 2006to extended to 2010. Under the terms of this legislation, welfare assistance to an individual was limited to a lifetime maximum of five years; required the recipients to seek employ