The way it does it is, in large part, the income tax. I still don't understand, in the end, how property owners' tax benefits are justified in terms of some vague notion of personal sovereignty over the state, while welfare is somehow statism. They're both redistributive politics, the difference being that the middle-class has the power and the poor are subject not only to their own supposed faults but to institutional racism, lousy schools, no job opportunities, etc etc. This, as far as I'm concerned, is a good thing, and I don't begruge it. I never said welfare worked well.
Welfare reform is needed, but punitive welfare reform is going to be counterproductive.
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