Recalibrating the Balance: Reflections on Welfare Reform

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Candidate Clinton promised, in Putting People First, "to make work pay" and to "end welfare as we know it": "It's time to honor and reward people who work hard and play by the rules. That means ending welfare as we know it not by punishing the poor or preaching to them, but by empowering Americans to take care of their children and improve their lives. No one who works full-time and has children at home should be poor anymore. No one who can work should beable to stay on welfare forever."