No daveman, don't wuss out by throwing my question back at me. Anyone can play that baby game. If you're such a proud conservative, what have the conservatives done that you're so proud of to help people get back on their feet?
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, a Republican initiative, was very successful.
A report from 2003:
- Overall poverty, child poverty, and black child poverty have all dropped substantially
- Although liberals predicted that welfare reform would push an additional 2.6 million persons into poverty, the U.S. Bureau of the Census reports there are 3.5 million fewer people living in poverty today than there were in 1995 (the last year before the reform).
- Some 2.9 million fewer children live in poverty today than in 1995
- Decreases in poverty have been greatest among black children
- In fact, the poverty rate for black children is now at the lowest point in U.S. history. There are 1.2 million fewer black children in poverty today than there were in the mid-1990s.
- Hunger among children has been cut roughly in half
- According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are 420,000 fewer hungry children today than at the time welfare reform was enacted.
- welfare caseloads have been cut nearly in half
- and employment of the most disadvantaged single mothers has increased from 50 percent to 100 percent.
- The explosive growth of out-of-wedlock childbearing has come to a virtual halt
- The share of children living in single-mother families has fallen, and the share living in married-couple families has increased, especially among black families.
Now answer my question. What has the left done for the downtrodden? NOTE: Keeping them dependent on government really isn't helping them.
This is a great example of welfare
reform. Reform of programs already put in place by Democrats.
And to be fair, it was largely a bipartisan effort, not just a Republican effort. The most glaring indication of bipartisanship was the fact that the reform was pushed by Clinton, a Democrat, who according to your source (groan....Wikipedia??)
campaigned on a welfare-reform platform, and was elected on the platform by Democrats. The first two versions of the bill were vetoed by Clinton. The third version of the bill passed the House with approx. 50% of the Democrats voting in favor and then it passed the Senate with approx. 50% of Democrats voting in favor.
And Dagoose has a good point. If this welfare reform is such a great Republican acheivement, then why are conservatives still pissy about welfare today?