Welfare Reform- Is it necessary?

On Aug. 22, 1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The bill ended the legal entitlement to welfare benefits, established time limits and work requirements for participation in the program, and gave states much more authority to establish other requirements and restrictions.

Most fiscal liberals thought that this would result in financial disaster but the results say differently. As [the Department of] Health and Human Services statistics show, roughly 2.5 million families have left the program, a 57 percent decline (Tanner). The reform helped everyone. According to the Census Bureau, child poverty rates declined from more than 20 percent in 1996 to 17.8 percent today [2006]. Roughly 1.6 million children were lifted out of poverty. Also, since 1996, the poverty rate among black children has fallen. Dependent single mothers, the group most heavily impacted by welfare reform, account heavily for this decline (Tanner). 

These facts prove that making reforms to welfare programs will help everyone, especially the recipients of it. Basically, most of those who left welfare found work, and of them, the vast majority work full-time. For these reasons, welfare reform is not only a smart economic idea, but a wise one.

Is welfare reform fair to the recipients of it?

Welfare Reform Has Helped People Out Of Poverty (Gale Opposing Viewpoints)

(blog.anderson.us)