From Welfare Shift in ’96, a Reminder for Clinton

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/us/politics/11welfare.html?_r=2&ref=politics&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

From Welfare Shift in ’96, a Reminder for Clinton
Paul Hosefros/The New York Times

President Bill Clinton signed legislation in 1996 overhauling the welfare system.


By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: April 11, 2008

snip//

Among some advocates for the poor, the growing prospect of a severe recession and evidence of backsliding from the initial successes of the policy shift have crystallized fresh concern. Many remain upset that Mrs. Clinton, once seemingly a stalwart member of their camp, supported a law that they contend left many people at risk.

“If there is no national controversy about welfare reform, we paid an awfully high price,” said Peter Edelman, a law professor at Georgetown University who has known Mrs. Clinton since her college days, and who quit his post as assistant secretary of social services at the Department of Health and Human Services in protest after Mr. Clinton signed the measure.

“They don’t acknowledge the number of people who were hurt,” Mr. Edelman said. “It’s just not in their lens. It was predictably bad public policy.”

Forcing families to rely on work instead of government money went well from 1996 to 2000, when the economy was booming and paychecks were plentiful, economists say. Since then, however, job creation has slowed and poverty has risen. The current downturn could be the first serious test of how well the changes brought about by the 1996 law hold up under sharp economic stress.

“We should have enormous concern about the lack of a fully functioning safety net for families with children,” said Mark H. Greenberg, director of the Poverty and Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research group.

In many ways, Mrs. Clinton has sought to moderate her liberal image since leaving the White House. But on welfare, she has faced the opposite problem: accusations from some liberals that she sold out their principles for a politically calculated centrism.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/us/politics/11welfare.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=politics

[gateley]

1. I didn't pay much attention at the time,

but looking at this from NOW, I feel it sure was a Republican thing to do. Maybe it was one of those instances where it looked good on paper? But we're talking about people, not stats.

[CountAllVotes]

2. I paid attention!

and ever since that time I have NOT LIKED BILL CLINTON one damn bit! He was red faced and pointing that finger at that time too. He was criticized for it but he did not care. It is all about the CLINTON money scheme. It seems to have worked quite well hasn't it Bill? :mad:

:grr:

:kick:

[gateley]

3. I've never liked him --

but it was more of an instinctual, gut feeling than any policy or presidential action (since again, I wasn't paying attention). True colors.

[OhioChick]

4. K&R

This needs some front page exposure.

[fasttense]

5. How convenient

"Forcing families to rely on work instead of government money went well from 1996 to 2000."

Then the corporations moved the work out of the country and hired millions of illegal and HB1 visa employees. So where were the families suppose to find work?

I guess we should just let them die and decrease the surplus population. Are their no prisons? Are their no work houses?

[Justitia]

6. CLASSIC example of Clintonian Triangulation, one of many. -eom