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President Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform Analysis

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In 1996, President Bill Clinton reformed the welfare system to improve its services with mixed reviews. The issues surrounding the reform got people divided left and right. New York Democratic senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was quoted saying “the 1996 reform law a brutal act of social policy, a disgrace, and would dog proponents to their graves” (Robert Rector). The president of Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, said “the welfare reform will leave a blot on Bill Clinton’s presidency” (Robert Rector). Her husband, Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary, Peter Edelman, resigned his post in protest of the new law.
Still, there were a number of individuals, mainly conservatives, welcomed the change with open …show more content…

Though there is a debate what the real purpose of the TANF program, its main purpose, according to Sawhill, “was to assist needy families, fight welfare dependency by promoting work and marriage, reduce non-marital births, and encourage formation and maintenance of two-parent families” (Sawhill). Conservatives wanted to bring attention to the work and family creation issues while many liberals, although appreciating the focus on the work, were equally concerned with securing/making sure of benefits good enough for income for needy …show more content…

In 2010, the buying power of block grant has alarmed proponents serious enough to address the issue during the TANF debate. States argue that Congress initially urged them to build TANF surpluses during prosperous times. It has been noted that in real terms, the annual grant is declining and the system does not adjust automatically when the economy sours and caseloads rise.
Furthermore, there was also a conflict of formula allocating the block grants among states. The distribution of block grants among states was based on the historical allocation of federal AFDC funds. Poorer states received less TANF money per poor child than wealthier states with tis style of funding. Because the block grant is fixed, this formula did little sense especially when the old formula in AFDC encouraged state

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