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.
In 1935, President Roosevelt (D) said: “Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Read More.
Marriage: America's greatest weapon against child poverty. A Heritage Foundation book of charts. Read More.
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. Read More.
Child poverty is an ongoing national concern, but few are aware that its principal cause is the absence of married fathers in the home. Read More.
Means-tested welfare is likely to equal or exceed $10.3 trillion over the next decade. Much of this spending will be financed by massive government deficits, placing financial burdens on future generations. Read More.
Testimony before Committee on the Budget United States House of Representatives Robert Rector Senior Research Fellow, Family & Welfare Studies The Heritage Foundation …
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Heritage research from the Index of Government Dependency is discussed on FBN's Freedom Fighters. …
Heritage reseach from the Index of Government Dependency is discussed on a panel on FNC's Forbes on Fox. …
Heritage research from the Index of Government Dependency is discussed on FBN's Follow the Money …
Greater Handouts Result in a Dependency Nation Americans Receive More Than Ever…
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…
Robert Rector discusses poverty. …
Robert Rector discusses poverty in America. …
In this week's Heritage in Focus pocast, Rachel Sheffield discusses poverty in America. David Weinberger hosts. To get regular updates on Heritage in Focus podcasts, visit our RSS feed or subscribe on iTunes. To listen to more Heritage in Focus podcasts, return to the Podcast…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Abstract: The growth of welfare spending is unsustainable and will drive the United States into bankruptcy if allowed to continue. President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget request would increase total welfare spending to $953 billion—a 42 percent…
Welfare Reform’s Recent History Franklin Delano Roosevelt: In 1935, President Roosevelt (D) said: “Continued…
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…
Early this year, Congress will work to renew welfare reform by reauthorizing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. As part of this process, Congress will also seek to reauthorize the Title V abstinence education program that was created, along with TANF, in the original 1996 welfare reform act, the Personal…
Read the full text here Each year for the past two decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in “poverty.” In recent years, the Census has reported that one in seven Americans are poor. But what does it…
Read the Executive Summary Abstract: For decades, the U.S.…
Abstract: Federal social programs are rarely evaluated to determine whether they are actually accomplishing their intended purposes. As part of its obligation to spend taxpayers’ dollars wisely, Congress should mandate that experimental evaluations of every federal social program be conducted. The evaluations should be…
Abstract: For tens of thousands of endangered children, foster care has become a trap door rather than the safety net they need to help them succeed. In particular, federal financing policies have favored foster care over other child welfare approaches, leading states to overuse…
Abstract: The number of Americans who pay taxes continues to shrink—and the United States is close to the point at which half of the population will not pay taxes for government benefits…
Abstract: Year after year, The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Dependence on Government documents the ever-growing number of federal aid programs and the ever-growing number of Americans who rely on government subsidies for their existence. The number…
The mainstream media, liberal politicians, activists, and academia bewail child poverty in the U.S. But in these ritual lamentations, one key fact remains hidden: The principal cause of child poverty in the U.S. is the absence of married fathers in the home. According to the U.S…
“Provide for common defense” is a core constitutional obligation of the federal government. Yet entitlement spending is...…
My fellow conservatives, The stakes couldn’t be higher for our nation at this moment. In the coming months, Americans...…
Our newest video highlights a recent paper on welfare reform by Heritage's Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley. In the...…
In New York, facing a $9 billion deficit, state legislators put welfare on the chopping block to head off a government...…
The European economic model is dead. Don’t believe us? – Ask The Washington Post. Yesterday's front-page story reported...…
“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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