But nearly 35 years after the War on Poverty began, we are far from being poverty free. Michael Bauman, author of What Went Wrong With Welfare and speaker at the CURE conference, pointed out that you get what you pay for. When you tax something, you get less of it. When you subsidize something, you get more of it. Chronic poverty is at least partly about behavior, and welfare teaches the wrong lessons.
Welfare checks are higher the more children a single mother has.
In 1996, Congress took the first steps toward ending this destructive pattern and authorized state control over reform specifics. In some states, reforms have been an overwhelming success. Wisconsin has decreased its welfare rolls by more than 75 percent by implementing a powerful incentive structure based on work and accountability. There are 78 additional federal programs that provide cash and non-cash assistance, and they remain virtually unchanged. As long as the legislative focus remains on governmental solutions to the welfare dependency crisis, substantial reform is unlikely to occur.