welfare reform turns 20 as the War on Poverty turns 50

The Clinton / Congress welfare reform of 1996 is 20 years old now. (Here's a useful article on it.) It was...

 

-driven by dissatisfaction on both sides of the aisle with an inherently-flawed and hopelessly-simple, money-vomiting approach to a complex social problem...

 

-informed by Marvin Olasky's terrific book, The Tragedy of American Compassion (the House leadership was motivated by the book's historical and economic arguments)

 

-an under-rated point: we were just coming out of 40 years of Democratic dominance in Congress, esp. the House (often at a 2:1 ratio!). With Congress turning into a battleground, things got far more political. With govt's inherent limits, the pursuit of power over policy, ignorance and a willingness to demagogue, things have been ugly since then.