In doing so, our nation has just taken a critical step toward improving the way we help our neediest citizens. At the same time the authority and much of the money from that program will be sent to the states, who will be given remarkable flexibility to change the ways they help the poor. The core of this legislation includes two key revolutions that are necessary and important to converting public aid into something that offers hope to the many families now in poverty and on welfare. The first is a fundamental change in how we think about helping America's poorest families. 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.