Clinton Declares ‘Welfare Reform Works’ President Notes 27-Year Low On Rolls, But Says Much More Needs To Be Done

Declaring an end to the debate over the effectiveness of welfare reform, President Clinton released new figures Tuesday showing that state caseloads have declined significantly since federal reform legislation was enacted a year ago.

During the 3-1/2 years before Clinton signed the law into effect Aug. 22, 1996, welfare caseloads shrank by 1.9 million. During the first nine months after its enactment, an additional 1.4 million people dropped off the rolls, Clinton said, reducing the nation’s welfare population to a 27-year low of 10.7 million.

“I think it’s fair to say the debate is over: We know now that welfare reform works,” Clinton told a group of business people and former welfare recipients in St. Louis. “We now have the smallest percentage of Americans living on public assistance we have had since 1970.”

Welfare rosters across the country have fallen 24 percent since Clinton took office in January 1993. Eleven states have seen their welfare populations drop by 40 percent or more.

But California, where the economic recovery came later and where partisan wrangling delayed reform, the number of recipients is down only 1 percent, said Bruce Reed, the president’s assistant for domestic policy.

The only states with worse records are Alaska and Hawaii.

During a speech in a sweaty factory employing former welfare recipients, the president emphasized his administration’s efforts to soften the year-old federal welfare reform legislation, which largely reflected the vision of its GOP drafters.

Clinton stressed that Americans have a “moral obligation” to do much more to finish the job of providing every welfare recipient with an opportunity to earn his or her own way.

“Now, I want to challenge every employer in America to join this crusade,” Clinton said.

Joking that he sounded like a television salesman hawking his wares, Clinton repeated a new toll-free number that employers can call to get assistance in hiring welfare recipients: (888) USA-JOB1.

Clinton acknowledged that many of the recipients who are still on the rolls are those who face the most hurdles to getting jobs, such as inadequate education, little job experience or expensive child care needs.

The real sting of welfare reform has yet to be felt. The new federal law requires recipients to work after receiving help for two years, and limits cash assistance to five years in a lifetime.