The reality, as Michelle Chen points out, both Republicans and Democrats have gutted the welfare system to "conduct a cruel social experiment on impoverished families." The memo that causes so much interest among Republicans would allow states more flexibility in meeting the mandates of TANF. The idea of moving people off welfare rolls has little to do with decreasing poverty and more with getting people off welfare.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) claims TANF's track record contrasts with AFDC:
Over the last 16 years, the national TANF caseload has declined by 60 percent, even as poverty and deep poverty has worsened. While the official poverty rate among families declined in the early years of welfare reform, when the economy was booming and unemployment was extremely low, it started increasing in 2000 and now exceed its 1996 level.This has driven poor mothers of color to the margins of the economy making them virtually invisible in politics.
These opposing trend--TANF caseloads going down while poverty is going up--mean that a much smaller share of poor families receive cash assistance from TANF than they did prior to welfare reform.
The work requirements have driven welfare recipients into low-wage dead end employment. More often those families that leave welfare are both disconnected from welfare and from work. Here is the time to throw in racist sexist thoughts of black women exploiting the welfare system. Also, time to think back on the deserving and undeserving poor. Now we have to think about whether welfare to work is forced labor, and while Chen's article doesn't mention the connections between the employers who benefited from welfare reform and the lobbying activities that led to it.
The conversations surrounding welfare, like welfare policy, has little to do with the welfare recipients or how to improve the system. Instead, attention is drawn to politicians and dropping the welfare rolls.
