VIDEO: Welfare Can And Must Be Reformed
Brandon Stewart /
Our newest video highlights a recent paper on welfare reform by Heritage’s Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley. In the video and this new report, we reveal some startling statistics:
- Welfare spending is climbing faster than spending for education, defense, and even Social Security and Medicare.
- After adjusting for inflation, welfare spending is 13 times higher today than in 1965, when the War on Poverty started
- The average out-of-wedlock birthrate is 40%, while African-American populations see a rate of 72%. In 1965, the average was 7%.
- Under President Obama, welfare spending is projected to increase $10.3T over the next decade
- Meant to provide temporary assistance, half of all food stamp aid goes to individuals who have been in the program more than 8 years
Simply put, welfare spending, like most government spending, is on an unsustainable path.
But despite all the gloom, Rector and Bradley are clear that there is hope for reform. In 1996, welfare reform was hugely successful. As a result of those reforms, “caseloads shrank by over 60 percent, 2.8 million families moved off the rolls and into jobs, and 1.6 million fewer children were left in poverty.” Rector and Bradley make the case that these successes can be repeated again. And, moreover, they must. With exploding deficits and a soaring national debt, it is absolutely critical that America get a hold on its spending. (more…)