The heart and soul of the current AFDC system is its Federally-guaranteed individual entitlement to cash. Income is redistributed as a way to alleviate financial poverty. Unfortunately, this approach does little to promote, and much to discourage, self-sufficiency among those who are aided. By eliminating cash entitlement, but dedicating the same dollars to moving recipients off the rolls into jobs, our national welfare policy will now be centered on helping families build the means to take control of their lives. Federal grants would be conditioned upon states moving recipients into work and reducing dependency.
Aid is explicitly temporary, a transition into self-support.
This shift in the reigning policy focus is very important for it is through working consistently that parents give their families the best chance to escape poverty. Public aid that truly seeks to improve the lot of poor families must be focused well upon helping them master the art of staying employed. The second revolution is in how welfare is administered. While some new rules have received most of the public's attention, the real story of this new law is in the rules it eliminates. In a rare display of modesty and self-denial, the Federal government is ceding policy control of welfare to the states.