Obama Guts Clinton's Landmark Welfare Reform of 1996

Yesterday evening, National Review Online reported on an astonishing story that most readers will never hear if they get their news solely from the usual suspects of - take your choice - the MSM, Jurassic media, or Obamedia. What happened?

This afternoon, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive undermining the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements that have been the foundation of that law — one of the most successful domestic policy reforms in the 20th century.

Welfare reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The underlying concept of welfare reform was that able-bodied adults should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving welfare aid.

The welfare reform law was very successful. In the four decades prior to welfare reform, the welfare caseload never experienced a significant decline. But, in the four years after welfare reform, the caseload dropped by nearly half. Employment surged and child poverty among blacks and single mothers plummeted to historic lows. What was the catalyst for these improvements? Rigorous new federal work requirements contained in TANF.

The fundamental transformation of the United States into a model European socialist failure continues unabated. The full article has links to the backstory and the policy itself.  Read it here.