That's one giant step back from the abyss of conservative denial. Ironically, it's also an indirect refutation of the 1996 welfare reform endorsed by the president, which has contributed in no small measure to the poverty he now seeks to ameliorate. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was motivated by a desire to inoculate himself in an election year against charges of being soft on Cadillac-driving welfare mothers and other mythical AFDC abusers. He now seems to be suffering from a classic case of liberal guilt, even as he hails the success of reform. That doesn't mean those dropped from the rolls have escaped poverty.
Indications are that most former recipients are no better off than before, even if employed.
A National Governors' Association study indicates that close to 50 percent of those lately leaving welfare did not have jobs, and that the remainder were working at or slightly above minimum wage. They can either be maintained at public expense, or thrown into the street. In his new liberal phase, Bill Clinton may be beginning to recognize that fact. Others include his push for HMO reform and a patients' bill of rights, his proposal to cover prescription-drug prices for the elderly, his plan to insure a portion of the medically uninsured, and his designation of threatened natural wonders as scenic national monuments. Most startling of all, however, is the president's abrupt reversal on the issue of global trade.