68.3: Culture of Hope
Creating a Culture of Hope: Raising Families Beyond Poverty. Other Information:
The Republican-led welfare reforms enacted in 1996 marked a revolution in government’s approach to poverty. They changed the
standard for policy success from the amount of income transferred to the poor to the number of poor who moved from welfare
to economic independence. We took the belief of most Americans – that welfare should be a hand up, not a hand out – and made
it law. Work requirements, though modest, were at the heart of this success. That is why so many are now outraged by the current
Administration’s recent decision to permit waivers for work requirements for welfare benefits, in other words, to administratively
repeal the most successful anti-poverty policy in memory. Instead of undermining the expectation that low-income parents and
individuals should strive to support themselves, benefit programs like food stamps must ensure that those benefits are better
targeted to those who need help the most. For the sake of low-income families as well as the taxpayers, the federal government’s
entire system of public assistance should be reformed to ensure that it promotes work. Each year, this system dispenses nearly
$1 trillion in taxpayer funds across a maze of approximately 80 programs that are neither coordinated nor effective in solving
poverty and lifting up families. For many individuals collecting benefits from multiple categorical programs, efforts to work
or earn more actually result in less money in their pocket through the resulting loss of benefits. This poverty trap would
ensnare even more Americans if Obamacare were implemented. Taking a part time job, working an extra shift, or even just marrying
someone who works, would result in a loss of benefits, thereby discouraging the very acts necessary to achieve the American
Dream.
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