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Welfare

Return to Common Sense

August 31, 2016

Section: Culture – Welfare

“When he gave something the first time, there was gratitude; and when he gave something a second time to that same community, there was anticipation; the third time, there was expectation; the fourth time, there was entitlement; and the fifth time, there was dependency.” Bob Lupton.

“Once poverty is relative, it becomes impossible to eliminate – along with the government programs and the massive amounts of bureaucracy needed to do so.” Robert Rector

Philosophy (Background, Issues, Objectives):

Welfare programs cost more than $900 billion a year.

• In 2013, the hidden welfare state is the fastest growing component of government spending exceeding $900 billion per year, and this does not include Social Security or Medicare payments.
• Over 100 million persons, one in three Americans, receive aid from at least one means-tested welfare program each month.
• Welfare programs are implemented in over 13 government agencies in 78 separate federal means-tested programs.

• The U.S. has already spent $16 trillion since LBJ launched his “War on Poverty” in 1964.

o   “Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in 1935. “To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.”

o   In 1964, 19% of Americans were poor.

o   In 2012, 16% of Americans are poor, but the definition of poor has changed.

• Poverty is best measured relative to the actual living standards of our own society.

o   By the standards of the 19th century, practically no American is poor.

o   In comparison with Bangladeshis, there are precious few poor in the United States.

• Department of Agriculture offers Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP -aka food stamps) to low income families ($80B annually).
• Department of Health and Human Services oversees various welfare related programs

o   Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program (cut AFDC caseload in half)

§  In 1996, President Clinton signed the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, often referred to as the welfare-reform act, and welfare caseloads plummeted by 70%, down to 3.8 million taking 8.8 million people off the rolls.

§  The 2005 Budget Reconciliation Act embraced the “work-first” philosophy designed simply to get them working, even in entry-level positions, under the supervision of a caseworker.

§  Healthy Marriage Initiative.

§  Fatherhood Initiative

§  Head Start

o   In 2010, 70.5% of federal spending goes to dependence programs.

§  In 2010, housing assistance grew to $59.4 billion.

§  In 2010, Medicare grew to $452 billion and Medicaid grew to $273 billion.

§  In 2010, welfare and low-income health care assistance grew to $1,137 billion.

·         In 2005, $620 billion was spent on more than eighty welfare programs funded by federal, state, and local governments. 

o   In 2005, Social Security benefits for those in the poorest fifth of the population totaled $100 billion. 

o   In 2005, Medicare provided another $115 billion.

o   In 2005, educating the children of low-income families cost $105 billion more. 

o   In 2005 $40 billion was spent on uncompensated medical care and $78 billion in private charity.

• Cato Institute estimated ‘value’ of welfare programs would require jobs that paid $30,000 per year.
• OMB and GAO document widespread fraud in welfare payments that is costing $45 billion a year.

Welfare system is expensive, over $1 trillion in 2005, and growing.

• In 2011, the federal government funds and operates 126 different welfare and anti-poverty programs spending more than $668 billion per year:

The impact of food stamps, Section 8 housing subsidies, Medicaid, and other support programs has been to create a permanent welfare class which, in terms of skills and attitudes, is poorly equipped to return to work.

• In 2011, the number of Americans receiving food stamps has risen to over 26 million, and has grown by 72% in the previous 4 years.

o   In 2011 one in seven Americans are receiving food stamps.

o   States have made households automatically eligible (categorical eligibility) for food stamps if they receive other federal benefits like TANF or counseling services.

o   Duplication of benefits between other federal programs in rampant (ie. Food stamps and free school lunches)

• The children of welfare moms are nurtured in a mentality that perpetuates dependency from generation to generation.
• The destructiveness of welfare goes beyond political dependency.
• The welfare system contributes greatly to the breakdown of the family.
• The more welfare that families receive from government, the less necessary fathers are for their support.

o   Lacking the role model of a responsible father, children grow up to believe that dependency is a natural condition of life.

o   A great deal of evidence points to a close relationship between crime and welfare.

• Obama was schooled in the Chicago patronage system which equates dependency with votes.
• Support for {permanent) government safety nets is declining.

In the late 1960s the federal government tested the relationship between welfare and working in "the most ambitious social science experiment in history."

• The largest, longest and best-evaluated of these experiments was SIME/DIME (Seattle Income Maintenance Experiment/Denver Income Maintenance Experiment) in Seattle and Denver, and the results were not pretty.
• The goal was to prove that popular wisdom was all wrong ? (welfare would not cause people to reduce their work effort, to get married less often, divorce more quickly or engage in other dysfunctional behavior)
• To the dismay of the researchers, the results confirmed the conventional wisdom:

o   The number of hours worked dropped 9% for husbands and 20% for wives, relative to the control group. For young male adults it dropped 43% more.

o   The length of unemployment increased 27% among husbands and 42% for wives, relative to the control group. For single female heads of households it increased 60% more.

• Divorce increased 36% more among whites and 42% more among blacks. (In a New Jersey experiment, the divorce rate was 84% higher among Hispanics.)

The IRS administers "one of the federal government's largest benefit programs for working families and individuals."

• By claiming certain "credits," primarily the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit, eligible tax filers receive a check from the IRS even if they have paid no federal income tax during the year.

o   EITC is the "largest cash assistance program targeted at low-income families."

o   In 2008, of the approximately 142 million Forms 1040 filed, 25 million included EITC claims totaling $51.6 billion - the IRS paid out $45 billion in EITC benefits for the 2008 tax year.

o   In 2009, over 26 million people received nearly $59 billion in EITC benefits.

o   In 2008, another $20.5 billion was paid for Additional Child Tax Credits.

• In 2011, the IRS has an extensive marketing campaign to find more EITC claimers, asserting that one in five eligible recipients is missing out on government largesse.

Poverty is the anchor that binds people into welfare dependence.

• Political scientist Edward Banfield identified four degrees of poverty:

o   Destitution, which is lack of income sufficient to assure physical survival and to prevent suffering from hunger, exposure, or remediable or preventable illness;

o   Want, which is lack of enough income to support essential welfare;

o   Hardship, which is lack of enough to prevent acute persistent discomfort or inconvenience;

o   Relative deprivation, which is a lack of enough income, status, or whatever else may be valued to prevent one from feeling poor in comparison to others.   

o   One important category of poverty Banfield does not mention is psychological or spiritual poverty. 

• There are two main methods to measure poverty: income-based and consumption-based.

o   The Official Poverty Rate is an income-based measure calculated by the Census Bureau.

o   The Supplemental Poverty Measure tries to incorporate non-cash and post-tax transfers to low income individuals.

o   Consumption Poverty captures public transfers, housing and vehicle ownership.

• Mollie Orshansky, an economist and statistician with the Social Security Administration, devised the poverty line in the 1960s.

o   Orshansky used the average family budget and the cost of food.

o   Because the average family spent one-third of its budget on food in 1955, the poverty threshold was set at three times the minimum cost to purchase an adequate food diet.

o   The formula took a basic minimum (the food budget) and related it to the overall prevailing standard of living.

o   She described it as an acceptable minimum social standard according to the custom of the day.

o   It was not meant to be an absolute measure of poverty.

o   The federal government adjusted the poverty line every year thereafter, accounting solely for the cost of inflation.

• Only a small portion of the 37 million persons classified as “poor” are truly destitute.

o   Official poverty measures count just family's cash income.

§  The 2009 poverty rate was income below $11,161 for an individual, or below $21,756 for a family of four.

o   Official poverty ignores additional sources of support such as:

§  Housing subsidies;

§  Food stamps;

§  Medicaid;

Ø  The number of Americans on food stamps is rising dramatically, now approaching 40 million people in 2009.

§  Fuel assistance; and

§  Earned-Income Tax Credit.

o   The typical American categorized as “poor” in 2007 has many amenities formally thought of as luxuries.

§  43% of all poor households own their own home.

§  80% of poor households have air-conditioning.

§  Only 6% of poor households are overcrowded, two thirds have more than two rooms per person.

§  Typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe.

§  Nearly three quarters own a car; 31% own two or more cars.

§  97% have a color television; over half have two or more TVs.

§  62% have cable or satellite TV reception.

§  78% have a VCR or DVD player.

§  89% own microwave ovens; more than have a stereo.

§  More than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

o   In 2012, the condition of the poor was updated.

§  67% have cable or satellite television.

§  40% have a wide screen plasma or LCD TV.

§  More than half have video game systems such as Xbox or PlayStation.

§  25% have digital video recorder system such as DVR or TIVO.

§  50% have personal computers.

§  43% have internet access.

§  92% own microwave ovens.

o   Official poverty ignores Medicaid, housing allowances, food stamps and other federal and local government subsidies to the poor.

§  $40,000 has been labeled as the breakaway point for many government welfare programs (a little less than $20 per hour).

o   Rather than materially poor, many of America’s “poor” suffer from the effects of “behavioral poverty.”

§  A breakdown in the values, and conduct conducive to healthy families and self sufficiency.

§  Mean testing benefits are reduced as the non-welfare income rises.

§  Welfare eligibility rules (AFDC) incent fathers to leave the home, undermining basic values.

o   The bottom quintile has a 35% increase in income compared with the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th quintiles.

§  Earnings up, welfare down caused by welfare reform, not government payments.

§  Earned income tax credit accounted for the second biggest increase in income.

o   AEI maintains that including all market income reduces 2004 poverty rate from 12.7% down to 5.4%, demonstrating an incredible reduction in real poverty in this country.  

o   Statistically considering all compensation, private and government, the actual poverty rate should be in the range of 1 to 3 percent.

• Income as measured by the federal government is not a reliable indicator of well-being, but consumption is.

o   In constant dollars, consumption by people in the lowest quintile rose by more than 40% over the past four decades.

o   Spending is vital because it is the principal determinant of standard of living.

o   Measuring income on an after-tax basis and including transfers reduces real and perceived inequality.

o   The Census Bureau data is reported by household, and composition of households have changed over the past 30 years.

• Food insecurity is a term created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its annual report on the status of hunger in America.

o   Food insecurity is not synonymous with starvation, chronic hunger, and substandard nutrition.

o   Low food security is “reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet with little or no indication of reduced food intake”; and

o   Very low food security is “multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.”

§  Food security does not indicate reduced food intake, only disrupted eating patterns.

·         Recent studies have shown that people do not remain stagnant in their income level.

o   The Treasury Department’s latest study found that during the 10-year period starting in 1996, roughly half of the taxpayers who started in the bottom 20% had moved up to a higher income group by 2005.

o   Less than half of people in the top 1 percent in 1996 were still there in 2005.

o   Nearly half of the families in the lowest fifth of income earners in 2001 had moved up within six years.

o   More than a third of those in the highest fifth of income-earners in 2001 had moved down.

o   Another recent survey of over 500 successful entrepreneurs found that 93% came from middle-class or lower-class backgrounds.

§  Most were the first in their families to launch a business.

Several states are experimenting with ways to return people to independence.

• In Delaware, the Moving to Work program has been in place since 1996.

o   Moving to Work limits the length of time residents are eligible to receive housing subsidies.

o   Moving to Work requires all adults to work, and to work an increasing number of hours per week during their five year tenure.

o   Participants have to meet quarterly with a case manager to plan their path to financial independence.

o   More than 850 families have completed the program to enter assistance-free living.

o   30% of program participants become homeowners when they left.

• In Kansas, a different form of welfare was tied to work: food stamps.

o   One work requirements were established, thousands of food stamp recipients moved into the workforce, promoting income gains and a decrease in poverty.

o   40% of the individuals who left the food stamp ranks found employment within three months, and about 60% found employment within a year.

o   Average income increased by 127%.

o   Half of those who left the rolls and are working have earnings above the poverty level.

o   With the implementation of the work requirement, the caseload dropped by 75%.

The idea to replace the multiple means-based programs with a single program has been suggested, but has been found not to achieve the program objectives.

• The U.S federal government currently funds more than 100 separate anti-poverty programs, overseen by nine different cabinet departments and six independent agencies.
• The single program is simpler and based on a belief that all individuals have the capacity to promote their own interests, and in fact are better able to make decisions about their lives than anyone else.
• Replacing multiple programs with a single program transfers the decision making, allowing the recipient to make tradeoffs between previous conflicting programs.
• A Guaranteed Income / Negative Income Tax has been suggested as an income redistribution approach.

o   The appeal of a guaranteed income also diminishes when judged against its ability to move people away from government dependency.

o   There is some evidence that a guaranteed minimum scheme would undermine incentives to seek employment.

o   Four landmark experiments in the 1960s and '70s examined the Negative Income Tax's impact on labor supply.

o   The recipients of NIT grants tended to work fewer hours compared to control groups that did not receive the grants.

o   After 30 welfare experiments in the 1990s, only welfare policies that included work requirements pushed people off welfare and back to self-sufficiency.

Europe has begun to roll back some of their welfare programs.

• Britain is consolidating its six major welfare programs into a single grant, with a greater emphasis on moving recipients from welfare back to work

o   Work is the surest route out of poverty; it structures lives; unlocks potential; builds confidence; forges friendships; cements communities; provides mental well-being.

• Netherlands has asked its people to create their own social and financial safety nets, with less help from the government.
• Sweden enacted significant reforms to its safety net, including the partial privatization of its social security system.
• Finland announced plans to increase the retirement age, cut payments to students, and reform maternity leave.
• Denmark has declared it must embrace the “modernization of the welfare state,” adding that the system “needs to prioritize things in a new way and create the best possible conditions for people to get a job.”
• Norway is looking to cut taxes, reduce bureaucracy, and reforming the welfare system to better encourage entrepreneurship.

Several countries are eliminating their nation’s social-welfare programs and replacing with a guaranteed national income for all citizens.

• Recipients are left alone to manage their own lives free from government.
• Experiments are underway in Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands and Canada.

Principles:

Embrace the ‘Culture of Belonging” encouraging the combination of “work, wedlock, and worship.”

• Design welfare to provide for bare necessities.
• Design as “uncomfortable safety net.”
• Encourage temporary nature as a stepping stone to rejoining the free market society.
• Discourage permanent dependence as “under-class.”

Ten Welfare-Reform Lessons:

• Always promote personal responsibility.
• Employment is far better than training and education.
• Making work pay I welfare reform too.
• Be honest about the importance of married two-parent families.
• Caseworkers don’t cost much; benefits do.
• Medicaid is where the money is.
• Immigrants get welfare too.
• Welfare recipients (and workers too) will try to “get over.”
• When it comes to the disabled, trust but verify.
• Always cheer for the economy.

Defend and strengthen marriage and the family in federal and state law and policies.

• Re-write the Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
• Ease economic and other burdens on families (remove disincentives).
• Encourage healthy marriages through welfare reform and other social service programs.

Obey the principles of “calculated” compassion:

• Do not help the needy completely; merely help those who will help themselves.
• Give the poor the satisfaction of “earned achievement” – instead of rewarding them without achievement.
• Allow the poor to climb the “appreciation ladder” – from tents to cabins; from cabins to cottages; and from cottages to comfortable houses.
• Where emergency help Is provided, do not prolong it to the point where it becomes habitual.
• Strictly enforce the scale of “fixed responsibility”- first with the individual; next is the family; then the church; next is the community; finally the county, and in a disaster or emergency, the state. (Under no circumstances is the federal government to become involved in public welfare)

Recommendations:

Short term, Make explicit the goals to be 1) increase self-sufficiency; 2) enhance productive participation in society; and 3) improve personal well-being and upward mobility.

Transfer Food Stamp Program from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Promote marriage as an institution and a cure for poverty.

• Expand Healthy Marriage Initiative to increase number of two parent married families:

o   Conduct public education campaigns within low-income communities on the importance of marriage;

o   Provide marriage education classes to at-risk students in middle and high schools;

o   Provide life skills training, relationship building, and marriage education programs to interested young adults who are likely to become single parents.

• Eliminate penalties for married couples under government means tested welfare programs.
• Encourage a delay in the onset of sexual activity among young people.

Strengthen work requirements under all the means-tested programs to restore welfare as a temporary assistance program.

• Reform all the welfare programs to include work requirements to dis-incent long term government dependence.
• Restore the original work requirements to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.

o   Include a guaranteed offer of work for everyone who reports to local welfare office before 9am.

o   Local welfare office would provide free daycare for participants small children.

o   For those who work a minimum numbers of hours each month would get a Medicaid voucher to purchase health insurance.

• Add work requirements (30 hours per week) to other welfare programs, such as public housing.

o   Mandate large scale, multi-site experimental evaluations of implementations to tune programs prior to final adoption.

o   Treat a portion of welfare aid as a loan to be repaid by able-bodied recipients.

Eliminate Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grants ($3.1B).

Long term, Abolish federal Department of Housing and Urban Development as not covered under enumerated powers (63 billion annually).

• End federal rental assistance programs ($27.1 billion annually).
• End community development subsidies ($13 billion annually).
• End housing finance subsidies (12 billion annually).
• End urban renewal and public housing subsidies ($9 billion annually).
• End American/Hawaiian programs ($893 million annually).

Abolish federal Department of Health and Human Services as not covered under enumerated powers.

• Devolve welfare programs (family, child care, social services, foster care, adoption services, Head Start, community services, etc.) to individual states ($20B).

References:

“The 5000 Year Leap” by W. Cleon Skousen published by National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2006.

“After the Welfare State” by Tom G. Palmer published by Students for Liberty, 2012.

 “Who’s the Fairest of Them All?” by Stephen Moore published by Encounter Books, 2012.

 “The government’s welfare bureaucracy” by Frank Gillespie dated March 21, 2002 published by Main Street News at http://www.mainstreetnews.com/Arch/02/0320/MadOpinion.html .

“The rich are getting richer, and so are poor” by Jack Kemp dated January 28, 2003 published by Town Hall at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JackKemp/2003/01/28/the_rich_are_getting_richer,_and_so_are_poor .

“Rich-poor divide shows poverty is relative” by Jonah Goldberg dated June 18, 2003 published by Town Hall at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2003/06/18/rich-poor_divide_shows_poverty_is_relative .

“Welfare Reform II” by Stephen Moore dated March 10, 2005 published by National Review Online at http://www.nationalreview.com/moore/moore200503100951.asp .

“Long After the Alarm Went Off” by Ellis Cose dated March 11, 2005 published by MSNBC at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7103230/site/newsweek/ .

“The 2005 Index of Dependency” by William W. Beach dated June 13, 2005 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/cda05-05.cfm .

“Ending Welfare As We Know It” by Myron Magnet dated December 19, 2005 published by  Manhattan Institute for Policy Research at http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_national_review-ending_welfare.htm .

“A Plan to Replace the Welfare State” by Charles Murray dated March 26, 2006 published by The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page at http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008142 .

“How Welfare Reform Worked” by Kay S. Hymowitz dated Spring 2006 published by City Journal at http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_welfare_reform.html .

“The Collapse of Marriage and the Rise of Welfare Dependence” by Jennifer A. Marshall, Robert Lerman, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Wade Horn, and Robert Rector dated May 22, 2006 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/hl959.cfm .

“New welfare rules designed to reduce rolls” by Richard Wolf dated June 28, 2006 published by USA Today at http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-06-28-new-welfare-rules_x.htm .

“Further Welfare Reform and the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005” by Stephen M. Lilienthal dated July 13, 2006 published by American Daily at http://americandaily.com/article/14512 .

“The Impact of Welfare Reform” by Robert Rector dated July 19, 2006 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/tst071906a.cfm .

“The Amazing Colossal Poorhouse” by Jesse Walker dated August 22, 2006 published by Reason Foundation at http://www.reason.com/links/links082206.shtml .

“More Welfare, More Poverty” by Michael D. Tanner dated September 21, 2006 published by The Cato Institute at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6698 .

“The Feminization of Poverty? There You Go Again, Hillary!” by Carey Roberts dated October 4, 2006 published by Renew America at http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/061003 .

“The 2006 Index of Dependency” by William W. Beach dated November 30, 2006 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/cda06-11.cfm .

“States’ Addiction to Welfare Corrupts Federalist System” by Mike Franc dated March 2, 2007 published by Human Events Online at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19645 .

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“Welfare and the ‘Road to Serfdom’” by Stephen Baskerville dated June 15, 2007 published by Institute for Policy Innovation at http://www.ipi.org/ .

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“Slaves to the Welfare State” by Thomas Brewton dated May 10, 2008 published by Thomas Brewton at http://www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/slaves_to_the_welfare_state.

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“Poverty and Welfare in America” by Peter Ferrara dated August 21, 2008 published by The American Spectator at http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13740 .

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“Budget for food stamps ballooning out of control” by Jeff Sessions dated October 23, 2011 published by The Daily Caller at http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/23/sessions-budget-for-food-stamps-ballooning-out-of-control/ .

“Why Marriage Preserves More Perfect Union” by Phyllis Schlafly dated October 25, 2011 published by Investor’s Business Daily at http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/589282/201110251850/Why-Marriage-Preserves-More-Perfect-Union.htm .

“How class warfare weakens America” by Paul Ryan dated October 26, 2011 published by New York Post at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/how_class_warfare_weakens_america_2RiwAsufcsk9ulnS7xJBlK .

“Why Not a Negative Income Tax?” by Guy Sorman dated Winter 2011 published by City Journal at http://city-journal.org/2011/21_1_income-tax.html .

 “Angry about inequality? Don’t blame the rich.” by James Q. Wilson dated January 26, 2012 published by The Washington Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/angry-about-inequality-dont-blame-the-rich/2012/01/03/gIQA9S2fTQ_story.html .
“The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government” by William W. Beach and Patrick D. Tyrrell dated February 8, 2012 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/02/2012-index-of-dependence-on-government .

“Damn, I just want some jam” by Brion McClanahan dated February 28, 2012 published by The Daily Caller at http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/28/damn-i-just-want-some-jam/ .

“The Destructive Nature of Welfare” by Rebekah Rast dated March 7, 2012 published by American Clarion at http://www.americanclarion.com/3934/2012/03/07/destructive-nature-welfare/ .

“The Misleading Tale of Income Inequality” by Diana Furchtgott-Roth dated March 8, 2012 published by Real Clear Markets at http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2012/03/08/the_misleading_tale_of_income_inequality_99555.html .

“The American Welfare State: How We Spend Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty – and Fail” by Michael Tanner dated April 11, 2012 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/american-welfare-state-how-we-spend-nearly-$1-trillion-year-fighting-poverty-fail .
“The Dirty Needle That is Government Dependency” by Robert Rohlfing dated April 18, 2012 published by Intellectual Conservative at http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2012/04/18/the-dirty-needle-that-is-government-dependency/ .

“What I Learned in the Poverty War” by Peter Cove dated Autumn 2012 published by City Journal at http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_4_poverty.html .

“Restoring a True Safety Net” by David J. Armor and Sonia Sousa dated Fall 2012 published by National Affairs at http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/restoring-a-true-safety-net .

“Pew Research Center survey finds declining support for government safety nets” by Berry Hawes dated October 14, 2012 published by The Post and Courier at http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20121014/PC1602/121019592/1165/pew-research-center-survey-finds-declining-support-for-government-safety-nets .

“The Comfort of Welfare” by Charles Payne dated February 1, 2013 published by Town Hall at http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/charlespayne/2013/02/01/the-comfort-of-welfare-n1502419 .

“Work Disincentives, Still Crazy After All These Years” by Arthur Laffer dated February 8, 2013 published by The Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324235104578243373468081096.html?KEYWORDS=work+disincentives .

“Parasitocracy” by Daren Jonescu dated October 9, 2013 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/m-parasitocracy.html .

“Europe Tries Welfare Reform” by Michael Tanner dated October 16, 2013 published by National review Online at http://www.nationalreview.com/article/361331/europe-tries-welfare-reform-michael-tanner .

“Recalibrating the poverty line” by John F. Schwarz dated October 24, 2013 published by LA Times at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-schwarz-poverty-line-income-gap-20131024,0,7650397.story#axzz2idEO1kWr .

“The Government’s War on Poverty Reduction” by Arnold Ahlert dated December 11, 2013 published by Canada Free Press at http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/59769 .

“In the War on Poverty, a Dogged Adversary” by Eduardo Porter dated December 17, 2013 published by The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/business/economy/in-the-war-on-poverty-a-dogged-adversary.html .

“What’s Next: A Guaranteed Minimum Income?” by J.D. Longstreet dated December 18, 2013 published by American Clarion at http://www.americanclarion.com/26706/2013/12/18/whats-next-a-guaranteed-minimum-income/ .

“10 Programs to Eliminate in the January 2014 Spending Bill and Save $10.2 Billion” by Romina Boccia dated January 3, 2014 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/01/10-programs-to-eliminate-in-the-january-2014-spending-billand-save-102-billion .

“It’s Time for Welfare Programs to Require Work, Not Subsidize Idleness” by Robert Rector dated February 1, 2014 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://blog.heritage.org/2014/02/01/help-poor-transforming-growing-welfare/ .

“Why We Lost the War on Poverty” by John C. Goodman dated February 8, 2014 published by Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2014/02/08/why-we-lost-the-war-on-poverty-n1791483 .

“Time for Guaranteed Income?” by Veronique de Rugy dated February 19, 2014 published by Reason at http://reason.com/archives/2014/02/19/time-for-a-guaranteed-income .

“The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later” by House Budget Committee Majority Staff dated March 3, 2014 published by Congress at http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/war_on_poverty.pdf .

“The Poverty Hoax” by John Dietrich dated April 8, 2014 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/04/the_poverty_hoax.html .

“Ten Welfare-Reform Lessons” by Robert Doar dated April 14, 2014 published by National Review Online at http://www.nationalreview.com/article/375679/ten-welfare-reform-lessons-robert-doar .

“The Great Society at Fifty” by Nicholas Eberstadt dated May 19, 2014 published by The Weekly Standard at http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/great-society-fifty_791175.html .

“Bring Back the Welfare Stigma” by Daniel Payne dated August 21, 2014 published by The Federalist at http://thefederalist.com/2014/08/21/bring-back-the-welfare-stigma/ .

“The War on Poverty Has Been a Colossal Flop” by Robert Rector dated September 16, 2014 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/16/war-poverty-colossal-flop/ .

“Maine Food Stamp Work Requirement Cuts Non-Parent Caseload by 80 Percent” by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield, and Kevin D. Dayaratna dated February 8, 2016 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2016/02/maine-food-stamp-work-requirement-cuts-non-parent-caseload-by-80-percent .

“Setting Priorities for Welfare Reform” by Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield dated February 24, 2016 published by The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2016/02/setting-priorities-for-welfare-reform .

“What Would Happen If We Just Gave People Money?” by Andrew Flowers dated April 25, 2016 published by FiveThirtyEight at http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/universal-basic-income/ .

 “Ending Welfare as We Know It” by Michael Tanner dated April 27, 2016 published by National Review Online at http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434612/welfare-trapping-poor-poverty .

“Dramatic success in 2 states that innovated on subsidies for poor people” by Thomas Lifson dated May 1, 2016 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/05/dramatic_success_in_2_states_that_innovated_on_subsidies_for_poor_people.html .