After the 1994 elections, President William Jefferson Clinton began working with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the Republican-Controlled Congress to pass a couple of major welfare reform bills. Welfare reform was one of the major provisions of the 'Contract with America', that was signed by almost every Republican members of the house, and it was a campaign promise made by President Clinton in 1992. During the 1992 presidential elections, Clinton promised to “end welfare as we have come to know it". This was one of those rare bi-partisan moments when a Democratic President promised to work with a Republican Congress to expand on his predecessor’s actions. It was one issue that both sides campaigned on. Thus, it should have come as no surprise to Congress, nor the American people when Clinton promised to build on President Reagan's Family Support Act of 1988 and restore the "values of work and responsibility". Clinton signed welfare reform in 1996.
In Clinton's 1994 State of the Union Address, he described the problem and outlined his plan. Clinton began by describing a hearing he had when he was governor of Arkansas. The hearing included many former welfare recipients who had found their way to work and off welfare. A common thread among the attendees was a sense of pride in working. This is what Clinton meant by 'ending welfare as we have come to know it'. Like President Reagan, Clinton wanted to end 'welfare' and replace it with real jobs. One example of this was the earned-income tax credit that lifted families out of poverty and rewarded work over welfare.
"I once had a hearing when I was a Governor, and I brought in people on welfare from all over America who had found their way to work. The woman from my State who testified was asked this question: What's the best thing about being off welfare and in a job? And without blinking an eye, she looked at 40 Governors, and she said, "When my boy goes to school and they say, ‘What does your mother do for a living?' he can give an answer." These people want a better system, and we ought to give it to them.
Last year we began this. We gave the States more power to innovate because we know that a lot of great ideas come from outside Washington, and many States are already using it. Then this Congress took a dramatic step. Instead of taxing people with modest incomes into poverty, we helped them to work their way out of poverty by dramatically increasing the earned-income tax credit. It will lift 15 million working families out of poverty, rewarding work over welfare, making it possible for people to be successful workers and successful parents. Now that's real welfare reform"
But much more work was needed, and Clinton outlined his plan to build on the Family Support Act of 1988 to restore the value of work and responsibility. Like Reagan, Clinton wanted to keep families together and get tough on absent fathers by allowing states to withhold wages of absent fathers, but Clinton wanted to expand the bill’s encouragement of work through job training and support by providing two years of job support, training and child care. Lack of child care was one of the major weaknesses of the Family Support Act. Opponents of the 1988 bill argued that it was an assault against poor mothers who would be forced to leave their homes during the most precious years of child rearing. Clinton's plan would provide two years of job training and child care. "But after that, anyone who can work, must, in the private sector wherever possible, in community service if necessary."
"But there is more to be done. This spring I will send you a comprehensive welfare reform bill that builds on the Family Support Act of 1988 and restores the basic values of work and responsibility. We'll say to teenagers, "If you have a child out of wedlock, we will no longer give you a check to set up a separate household. We want families to stay together"; say to absent parents who aren't paying their child support, 'If you're not providing for your children, we'll garnish your wages, suspend your license, track you across State lines, and if necessary, make some of you work off what you owe.' People who bring children into this world cannot and must not walk away from them. But to all those who depend on welfare, we should offer ultimately a simple compact. We'll provide the support, the job training, the child care you need for up to 2 years. But after that, anyone who can work, must, in the private sector wherever possible, in community service if necessary. That's the only way we'll ever make welfare what it ought to be, a second chance, not a way of life."
Unfortunately, in 1994 Congress was more concerned about passing health care reform, than welfare reform and no plans emerged on welfare reform. It wasn't until 1996, that Congress passed any welfare reform bills. After Clinton vetoed the first two welfare reform bills, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The bill was authored by representative and future Ohio Governor John Kasich and was more conservative than the President wanted, but after vetoing two bills it would have been a political risk to veto a third bill. The new bill eliminated the 61-year old federal entitlement program created by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and replaced it with time limits and work requirements. The bill requited welfare recipients to begin working after two years and placed a five-year lifetime limit on benefits paid by federal funds. The bill enhanced enforcement of child support and encouraged two parent families by eliminating payments to separate households. President Clinton took significant fire from his traditional liberal allies who called the bill a "cruel monstrosity" and "an unconscionable retreat". Liberal representatives like John Lewis accused Clinton of selling out to the Republicans and losing his soul. The bill exposed significant rifts within the Clinton administration, but Ultimately it was political advisors like Dick Morris who convinced Clinton that to veto a third welfare bill would cost him his re-election. Clinton won re-election in 1996, but the debate over his welfare reform continued. That discussion is well beyond the scope of this article.
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-the-state-the-union-12 [Accessed 3 May 2019].
Wagner, D. (2019). 1988 Ronald Reagan - Family Support Act - "Workfare". [online] Stateoftheunionhistory.com. Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2019/04/1988-ronald-reagan-family-support-act.html [Accessed 3 May 2019].
Ending Welfare as We Know It: President Clinton and the Rhetorical Transformation of the Anti-Welfare Culture. (2006). Rhetoric and Public Affairs, [online] 9(4), pp.655-656. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41940106. [Accessed 3 May 2019].
HISTORY. (2019). How Bill Clinton’s Welfare Reform Changed America. [online] Available at: https://www.history.com/news/clinton-1990s-welfare-reform-facts [Accessed 3 May 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act [Accessed 3 May 2019].
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