George Bush's stance on Welfare
Welfare: In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Welfare Reform Act, which focused on bringing citizens on welfare back into the workforce. This act provided Federal money to each state in the form of a block grant, thus allowing each state to choose exactly how they wanted to manage the welfare system. While many believe that this act is creating a new era of responsibility, others fear that families and especially children will suffer when their welfare funding is cut. Link
George W. Bush:
Description of Candidate's Position: Bush believes the Welfare Reform Act has played an integral role in creating the "largest welfare caseload" reduction in history. By decreasing the number of people on welfare, the US has been able to provide more assistance to the families who need it. Therefore, in a second term, Bush will continue to support the reauthorization of the Welfare Reform Act by focusing on the idea that self-sufficiency only comes through work. Furthermore, Bush will propose further research and governmental assistance for healthy marriages and fatherhood. Finally, Bush will support an ownership society through proposing significant tax credits towards building and renovating homes for lower and middle-income families. Link
Quotation from the Candidate: "The new culture said if people were poor, the government should feed them. If criminals are not responsible for their acts, then the answers are not in prisons, but in social programs. People became less interested in pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and more interested in pulling down a monthly government check. A culture of dependency was born. Programs that began as a temporary hand-up became a permanent handout, regarded by many as a right."
Assessment of the Proposal:
Positive: The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, supports George Bush's belief that welfare has experienced some success by "playing an important role" in decreasing the number of people on welfare.
Negative: The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, believes that President Bush's health care policy, which increases funding of Medicaid for children, is contradictory to his welfare reform policy. They believe that Bush's policy should consistently support the ideal of decreasing dependency on the government.
Comparison: Both John Kerry and George Bush continue to support the Welfare Reform Act. However, John Kerry supports reauthorizing benefits for legal immigrants that were lost in 1996. Furthermore, Kerry believes that we must increase the minimum wage to allow welfare reform to remain feasible.
Link to Kerry Issue Brief.