Other states just slashed the rolls, and created Kafkaesque obstacles to benefits, even benefits intended to facilitate work. Overall, the number of people on public aid has been cut by more than half. But most of the ex-welfare people now working are still poor. Researchers find that 30 to 40 percent of people who have left welfare are actually worse off economically, including at least a million children. And this doesn't even count the social cost of having millions of children in makeshift day care, or fending for themselves while mothers try to hold on to jobs.
Many mothers are one sick child away from losing both a job and a reduced package of aid.
When former President Clinton pledged to end welfare as we know it, he also promised that people who work hard and play by the rules would not be poor. But society has not delivered its part of the bargain. The program comes up for renewal next year. First, let's truly make work pay. The program gives block-grants to states and rewards them with bonuses for meeting goals.