When President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in 1996,he boldly announced that the law was "ending welfare as we know it."And for a while, it looked like he was suitable.
The bill's landmark welfare program, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,or TANF for short, was hailed as a success by Republicans and Democrats alike. Millions of people were dropped from the welfare rolls, or child poverty dropped to its lowest level in 30 years.
But the mighty Recession of 2008 changed all that. Karen Sughrue,a producer with the Retro Report documentary team, has been examining the real legacy of Clinton's welfare reform."Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform was supposed to move needy families off government handouts and onto a path out of poverty, or " Sughrue reports. "What actually happened is a lesson in righteous intentions gone awry,and raises questions approximately whether the politics of poverty have changed much in 20 years."Check out Sughrue's full report below.
Source: wnyc.org