Reply #7: Let me tell you how I remember Rudy "reducing welfare" in NYC. [View All]

[no_hypocrisy]

He hired Jason Turner from Wisconsin to run his welfare program. His/their idea of innovation was to make welfare conditional. If you were a single mother receiving welfare stipends and/or a Section 8 housing stipend, you no longer received these benefits because you were in need. Rather, you had to WORK a certain number of hours (documented of course) in order to CONTINUE receiving your benefits. And these jobs were usually jobs that were assigned to (union) civil servants (who were fired). So you had to work during the hours they assigned you, which sometimes cut into when you took courses for a skill in order to GET OFF WELFARE. And you lost money in the deal, because while you had to work, you had to find money to pay someone to watch your kids and the money you "earned" was not enough for this expense. The end result was you got less money and were likely to stay on welfare rather than progress to employment. Rudy took credit for this "reform" too.