BigNerds.com

• Category: Social Issues
• Words: 975
• Pages: 4
• Views: 35
• Popularity Rank: 2467

Recent Changes To Welfare

When President Bill Clinton reluctantly signed the Personal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, he had an idea of what the
critical responses would be. The hope was to induce a program that would
bring significant benefits to the needy and hungery people of our country.
However, the response and criticisms are equivalent to what our president
expected, very negative.

Mary Jo Bane believes the new welfare law poses serious dangers to poor
children and families. As assistant secretary for children and families in
the Department of Health and Human services, she supported the
administration's efforts to refocus the welfare system on work and to increase
state flexibility through the waiver process. But in the course of reviewing
state welfare reform proposals, she became concerned that politics and
financial pressures were pushing states into a "race to the bottom"(Bane). As
long as the old law was in place the federal government could insist on
guaranteed assistance and protections for recipients. Her fears about what
would happen to poor children when states were no longer required to provide
the modest assurances and protections we insisted on in waiver demonstrations
led her to resign after President Clinton signed the welfare bill (Bane).

The reform takes away national level responsibilities and puts the money and
responsibility into the individual states. A good amount of flexibility is
provided, which may or may not result in a positive manner. For instance,
they money could be used on the work reform and job preparation, while others
could find loopholes in the laws, and while their purposes may not be
malicious, the money would not truly be carrying out the role intended.

"No longer will cash assistance to dependent children be...

You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!

• View Full Essay