Welfare and Welfare Spending

Despite spending more than enough to pull everyone across the poverty line, the War on Poverty has failed at reducing the causes of poverty and hurt many of the people it was intended to help. Poverty in America is overwhelmingly linked to the absence of fathers and a lack of work, but welfare payments have had the destructive effects of eroding marriage and work ethic in low-income communities. Welfare reform of 1996 transformed one program to dramatic effect, significantly reducing welfare rolls and lowering child poverty. But today that reform is in jeopardy, and some 70 other federal means-tested programs are in need of similar reform.

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  • Backgrounder posted January 5, 2004 by Robert Rector, Kirk Johnson, Ph.D. Understanding Poverty in America

    This key research from 2004 has been updated in Robert Rector's new paper, How Poor Are America's Poor? Examining the "Plague" of Poverty in AmericaEach year, the U.S. Census Bureau counts the number of "poor" persons in the U.S. In 2005, the Bureau found 37 million "poor" Americans. Presidential…

  • Special Report posted February 8, 2012 by William Beach, Patrick Tyrrell The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government

    Abstract: The great and calamitous fiscal trends of our time—dependence on government by an increasing portion of the American population, and soaring debt that threatens the financial integrity of the economy—worsened yet again in 2010 and 2011. The United States has long reached the…

  • Special Report on September 16, 2009 Obama to Spend $10.3 Trillion on Welfare: Uncovering the Full Cost of Means-Tested Welfare or Aid to the Poor

    Executive Summary Since the beginning of the War on Poverty, government has spent vast sums on welfare or aid to the poor; however, the aggregate cost of this assistance is largely unknown because the spending is fragmented into myriad programs. As this report shows, means-tested welfare or aid to poor and low-income persons is now the…

  • Testimony posted March 15, 2001 by Robert Rector The Effects of Welfare Reform

    Summary The intention of Welfare programs is to benefit low income Americans, especially children. Yet the evidence indicates that children and parents are actively harmed rather than helped by welfare.Nearly all Welfare aid for children goes to single parent households. But current research indicates that both Welfare dependence and single…

  • Report on August 17, 2010 Solutions for America: The Unsustainable Growth of Welfare

    THE ISSUE: Despite spending almost $16 trillion since the War on Poverty began in 1964, welfare programs have failed to reduce the causes of poverty, and instead have hurt many of the people they were intended to help. Poverty in…

  • Testimony posted August 1, 2001 by Robert Rector The Size and Scope Of Means-Tested Welfare Spending

    Introduction The U.S. welfare system may be defined as the total set of government programs-federal and state-that are designed explicitly to assist poor and low-income Americans. Nearly all welfare programs are individually means-tested.[[1]]Means-tested programs restrict eligibility for benefits to persons with non-welfare income below a certain level. Individuals with non-welfare income above a specified cutoff level may…

  • WebMemo posted May 11, 2010 by Robert Moffit, Ph.D. Obamacare: Impact on Doctors

    No class of American professionals will be more negatively impacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act than physicians. Third-party payment arrangements already compromise the independence and integrity of the medical profession; Obamacare will reinforce the worst of these features.…

  • Factsheet on March 17, 2011 Welfare Reform The Next Steps

    Welfare Reform’s Recent History Franklin Delano Roosevelt: In 1935, President Roosevelt (D) said: “Continued…

  • Backgrounder posted September 18, 1998 by Robert Rector The Myth of Widespread American Poverty

    In the last week of September, the U.S. Census Bureau will issue its annual report on the number of Americans who are "living in poverty." Census Bureau poverty reports vary little from year to year. For the past decade, the Census Bureau has declared that between 31.5 million and 39 million persons were living…

  • Factsheet on February 8, 2012 2012 Index of Dependence on Government: No Slowdown in Sight

    Greater Handouts Result in a Dependency Nation Americans Receive More Than Ever…

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  • Blog Post on 5/16/2012 2:00:11 PM Protect America: Address the Entitlement Problem Now

    “Provide for common defense” is a core constitutional obligation of the federal government. Yet entitlement spending is...…

  • Blog Post on 9/27/2010 4:49:10 AM Morning Bell: The Heritage Pledge

    My fellow conservatives, The stakes couldn’t be higher for our nation at this moment. In the coming months, Americans...…

  • Blog Post on 6/30/2010 11:00:10 AM VIDEO: Welfare Can And Must Be Reformed

    Our newest video highlights a recent paper on welfare reform by Heritage's Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley. In the...…

  • Blog Post on 6/24/2010 5:42:19 PM Time to Take on the Welfare State

    In New York, facing a $9 billion deficit, state legislators put welfare on the chopping block to head off a government...…

  • Blog Post on 5/12/2010 7:00:11 AM Europe Faces Reality

    The European economic model is dead. Don’t believe us? – Ask The Washington Post. Yesterday's front-page story reported...…

  • Blog Post on 2/12/2009 12:16:14 PM When a 'Tax Cut' Isn't a Tax Cut

    “So my whole goal over the next four years," President Barack Obama said Monday night at the end of his first...…

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