Will Hillary Clinton admit that welfare reform was a failure?

[portlander23]

Will Hillary Clinton admit that welfare reform was a failure?
Ryan Cooper
The Week

Today the Clintons argue that DOMA was a tactical retreat intended to head off a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage altogether, while public opinion trundled along toward equality. But an extensive investigation of Clinton White House documents from BuzzFeed News' Chris Geidner finds no contemporaneous evidence for this.

This is an illustrative story. As Matt Yglesias writes, it seems to confirm liberal fears that the Clintons, instead of being savvy, realistic liberal brawlers, are actually just sellouts: "The historical record seems to show transactional politicians who made a cynical calculus that they had a lot to lose and nothing to gain from opposing DOMA."

The same year as DOMA, President Clinton signed welfare reform into law, abolishing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program — which provided a small cash grant to low-income families with children — and replacing it with the vastly inferior Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

AFDC did have some flaws, no doubt. But it was a modest program that put money into the hands of people who needed it: the very poor, most of them children. In the 15 years after TANF passed, the fraction of Americans living in extreme poverty increased 150 percent. (We should also note that it was argued for on explicitly racist grounds.)

Welfare reform is not just something for browbeating Hillary Clinton. It's a directly relevant issue for millions of the most hard-up Americans. Furthermore, the political context Clinton will face if she is elected president is likely to be almost identical to that of her husband in 1996: a Republican Congress, eager to slash government spending to make budget headroom for tax cuts for the rich. Only this one will be far more conservative than 20 years ago.

Clinton really ought to address this issue. If TANF is so great, as she has long maintained, why does it help almost no poor people at a time of historic economic weakness? Is a 150 percent increase in the proportion of people living on two bucks a day an acceptable policy outcome for her? If Republicans want to block-grant Medicare, or privatize Social Security (to name another rumored '90s Clinton initiative), how would she react? Poor Americans deserve an answer.

Related:

There’s No Evidence In Clinton White House Documents For Clintons’ Story On Anti-Gay Law

Hillary needs to stop with her bul**hit about DOMA

Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Defense of Marriage Act, explained

[upaloopa]

1. Isn't there anything new to tell us about Bernie? It's been a long time since we've gotten any

Bernie issues. All there is From Berniastas is OP's about Hillary. Are you trying to convince us to turn our backs on Hillary or is it an attempt to help Bernie folks to keep the faith in the face of overwhelming odds against him?

What search engine do you use when you need some new Hillary dirt to throw against the wall?

[cprise]

2. K&R

[cprise]

3. K&R

[kelliekat44]

4. What was the real failure was the impeachment of Bill Clinton which drew too much attention away

from what the Dems wanted to do to fix some of the shortcomings of the welfare reform.

And the "Welfare to Work" program with all its shortcomings did provide a number of single moms with good employment.