FreedomWorks

Since 1996, America’s welfare system has emphasized work, personal responsibility, and independence. That’s a big difference from Europe and elsewhere, where welfare means “cradle-to-grave” handouts.

The United States is still a land of opportunity, where hard work and right living can overcome any obstacle. Today, our welfare system is a reflection of this distinctly American ethic.

It hasn’t always been this way—for the thirty years prior to 1996, America’s welfare system was mired in the liberal mentality of entitlement and dependency, and prior to 1996, welfare failed both its recipients and the country as a whole.

Unfortunately, that lesson is still lost on Teddy Kennedy and rest of the liberal cohort in the U.S. Senate. This week, they are fighting to undo the work-oriented elements in our welfare system by stalling an important bill that would reauthorize the 1996 reforms.

The debate underway in the Senate has a broader national importance. Because welfare policy doesn’t just reflect our values, it also shapes them. And the free-money, zero-responsibility welfare that the liberals love actually corrupts the American character.

After all, the liberals had their way before 1996, when welfare was wreaking havoc on those who were unfortunate enough to receive it. Generations of families were trapped in a cycle of dependency and poverty. Welfare, as the liberals had designed it, wasn’t a “helping hand”—it was an insidious program that robbed self-respect and undermined the very values that people need to succeed.

Thankfully, Congress ended all of that in 1996. We reformed welfare to send the message: if you are capable of working, you should be working (or in job training so that you’ll be working soon). That’s a bedrock principle—America is a compassionate land, but there’s no free ride. We ended the idea of welfare as an “entitlement” and replaced it with the notion that welfare should be a temporary helping hand, not a cash handout. Welfare should just be a safety net on the way to returning to the workforce. This concept of welfare reform was part of the 1994 Republican Contract with America, and despite shrill opposition from the liberal establishment, we passed it.

The 1996 Welfare reform act was an unqualified success. The number of people languishing on the welfare rolls has dropped by more than 50 percent. As a result of the 1996 bill, there are 2.9 million fewer children living in poverty today—the national child poverty rate fell by 20 percent overall. The African-American child poverty rate is at the lowest point on record, and since 1996 the Hispanic child poverty rate has seen the largest 5-year drop ever. This is in stark contrast to the dire predictions of the liberals in 1996, when groups like the Urban Institute claimed that the new law would force 1.1 million children into poverty. Quite the opposite!

More Americans are working today, too, including those on welfare. In 2001, even with a dramatically reduced caseload, 27 percent of adult welfare recipients were employed, as opposed to only 11 percent in 1996. Nationwide, the employment rate for single moms-- an at-risk group-- is up an astonishing 50 percent.

Despite this clear, resounding record of success, its hard to believe that some Democrats in the Senate want to return America to the kind of irresponsibility, isolation, and chaos that marked welfare before 1996.

Why are Teddy Kennedy and friends blocking the welfare reform bill? Senate liberals are more interested in politics than in passing successful, bipartisan legislation. One of my Armey’s Axioms is “The politics of greed is wrapped in the language of love.” Despite all of their “compassionate” rhetoric, Kennedy and his liberal buddies can’t stand that welfare reform is liberating people from dependency on the state. The political rationale for the Great Society of the 1960s was that by creating classes of people dependent upon government programs, the liberal bloc of the Democratic Party also created classes of dependent voters. Thankfully, that chain is largely broken for welfare recipients, but the liberals in the Senate want to bring back the bad old days of welfare entitlements equaling political dependency.

The record is clear on welfare reform. Congress needs to move now and finish a new welfare bill that strengthens the work requirements and gives states additional operational flexibility. Teddy Kennedy has always been wrong on welfare, and he continues to be wrong. The Senate needs to overcome his retrograde obstructionism and pass a welfare bill that builds on the successes of 1996.