Sociology 3901: Outline--Week Three
A. Effects of War on Poverty on poverty and poverty programs
1. 1964-1972: Combined purchasing power of AFDC and food stamps rose 40%
2. Political decisions and administrative changes making it easier for single
mothers to get on welfare rolls
3. Success of NWRO in publicizing welfare as a right, particularly in the poor black community
4. % of single mothers collecting AFDC rose from 29% in 1964 to 63% in 1972
and the overall number of single mothers also rose in those years, making
this a much more expensive program (at the same time far less costly than
our growing expenditures on the Vietnam War)
B. Conservative critique of AFDC, led by Charles Murray, Losing Ground...
argued that welfare itself was a major source of the rise in single parent
families and that it contributed to a vicious cycle of poverty, by depriving
single women of their motivation to work
1. Births outside marriage did indeed rise rapidly during these years, which
seemed to support his argument (note: teen birth rates were dropping steadily,
but % of teens and others who got pregnant and also married also dropping)...
2. But as Jencks points out (Rethinking Social Policy) , that "illegitimacy" rate rose from
1960-1964 when welfare payments were constant, from 1964 to 1972, when welfare
payments were rising, and from 1976-1988 when the buying power of welfare
payments fell 16%.
3. Percent of single mothers collecting welfare dropped to 45% by 1990,
but sheer numbers remained high, because of increased numbers of single mothers.
C. Poverty rates of children as one bottom line measure of the effectiveness
of our social safety net (though official poverty rates almost certainly underestimate poverty because of the way they measure the basic needs of a family--explain)
1. Low point of 14% in the late 1960s
2. Rose to around 23% by early 1980s and since that time has fluctuated
between 23% and 16% with various ups and downs...
3. Much, much higher for minorities. e.g. around 50% in black community
D. Last word on AFDC before the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996
1. Edin and Lein, Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and
Low-Wage Work (published in 1997). Interview study of single mothers in Boston,
San Antonio, Charleston, and Chicago
a. Neither single mothers in low-wage jobs nor single mothers collecting
AFDC could meet what most of us would consider the basic needs of their
families, unless they found a variety of ways (legal and illegal) to supplement
that work
b. Many of the low-wage mothers had previously been on welfare; many of
the welfare recipients had previously worked; most of these poor women were
in the work force about 3 years out of four; they lacked neither work motivation
nor basic work skills.
c. The jobs that were available offered neither health benefits nor ladders
of advancement, for the most part. Nevertheless, most of these mothers knew
the stigma of welfare and very much preferred working, even when it created
more hardship than welfare.
2. Nevertheless, AFDC identified by Jencks as the single most unpopular
social program in America
II. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996--how was it enacted. Source: Jason DeParle, American Dream, 2004, chapters 6-8
A. 1990: Governor Clinton(Arkansas) becomes chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a group formed during Reagan presidency to rethink Democratic party's liberal commitments...
Clinton: May 1991: "We should invest more money in people on welfare, to give them the skills they need. But we should demand that everybody who can go to work do it, for work is the best social program this country has ever devised."
Oct 1991: Clinton declares candidacy for Democratic nomination for president... DNC staffer Rex Reed comes up with the phrase "end welfare as we know it" and comes across a paper by a young Harvard professor, Minnesotan David Ellwood, which talks about time limits on welfare (as part of a set of changes including universal health care, job training, child care, and child support "assurance")... gives copy to Clinton day before a speech at Georgetown University.... both men would end up on President Clinton's staff
Candidate Clinton at Georgetown: "We going to put an end to welfare as we know it.... We'll give them all the help they need for up to two years. But after that, if they're able to work, they'll have to take a job or start earning their way through community service." "Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline... it provides a role model to children."
He told a story about an Arkansas woman whom he had asked what she liked best about getting off welfare. "She looked me straight in the eye and said: 'When my boy goes to school and they say, 'what does your mother do for a living?' he can give an answer.'"
B. Clinton presidency, 1993-1994
1. Postponement of welfare reform... criticism from public employees union, high cost estimates for community service job programs, and big budget deficits inherited from Bush/Reagan years
2. Most immediate impact on the poor: Clinton negotiated a doubling of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a program dating back to the Ford administration... "If you work, you shouldn't be poor," a phrase he borrowed from Ellwood...
3. Promised to exempt from the national program states that wanted to experiment with welfare reform. "I'm a big waiver guy. Let 'em rip."
Gov Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin first with state proposal: 2 year limits, period, restricted to two counties.
4. Clinton bill finally introduced June 1994 but without finding the money for it and with little expectation it would pass... "vague compromise bill," says DeParle. No decision on whether to time-limit community jobs... wanting to be tough on the mothers but still protect the kids (and how is that possible?).
Most of the Clinton reform energies in these first two years went into a plan for National Health Insurance, which he saw as a higher priority than welfare reform (and one that he thought would have more widespread support)...
C. Speaker Gingrich and the Contract with America, 1994-1995. The Republicans sweep to power in the congressional elections in fall 1994.
1. Gingrich knew little about AFDC... not on relevant committees
2. His key innovation, an old favorite of Republicans but never linked with welfare programs: block grants--"annual fixed payments to the states, regardless of need, and states manage as they see fit".... contrast with entitlements likeMedicare, Social Security, or AFDC
Quote, p. 127
Republican bill swept through the House... block grants, vast state discretion, five-year fixed limits (but the states could make them less), eventual target of a work rate of 50% (but anyone who dropped out of the program was counted as working, whether they left for jobs or for homeless shelters)
"Gingrich redefined compassion... While Reagan attacked poor people for abusing the programs, Gingrich attacked the programs for abusing the poor. He didn't complain, as Reagan did, of high-living welfare queens; he reminded the public that poor children were suffering and said welfare was to blame.... The rhetoric did more than soften the message. It created a logic for deeper cuts: The less we spend, the more we care!"
D. Senate Republicans split... not enough in the bill to fight the "real welfare problem of illegitimacy" Some Republicans wanted a "family cap"(no increase in aid for more children born while mother was getting assistance), a ban on aid to unmarried teens, an "Illegitimacy bonus" for states that cut nonmarital births without raising the abortion rate...
Clinton in an apparently weak position ("I should have done welfare reform before we tried health care; the Democrats might have had something to run on)and ready to deal, but insisted on more money for childcare ($3 billion)... Republicans resisted and then majority leader Bob Dole agreed... new version passed the Senate 87-12...
Clinton in weekly radio address: "We are now within striking distance. The Senate showed wisdom and courage."
E. But by now, Congress was in a bigger fight with Clinton about whether to balance the budget... Gingrich passed a bill to keep government running but contingent on more cuts from Clinton, including cuts in Medicare.... "Clinton refused and the government shut down. The Grand Canyon closed. Medical research ceased. The Pentagon stopped paying bills... The day Gingrich closed the government with a whine was the day Clinton won back his presidency. (And also the day he lost it; that night he met an intern named Monica Lewinsky.)... Gingrich's job approval rating sank to the depths of Nixon's during Watergate."
3. Newly strengthened politically, Clinton vetoed the welfare reform bill. Gingrich and Dole opposed compromise, thinking it would provide a strong campaign issue in 1996, but other Republicans were more prepared to compromise, especially after the National Governors' Association in February 1996 reversed their previous opposition to block grants (caseloads had dropped 10% because of a strengthening economy, so they stood to make immediate financial gains).Dole resigned his Senate leadership to devote full-time to presidental campaigning and Republicans were able to craft a compromise.
The original bill had included large cuts in food stamps and Medicaid. These were reduced or eliminated... The original bill had nothing to prevent states from largely eliminating welfare and using their block grants mostly for other purposes; that flexibility was reduced. States were allowed to exempt up to 20% of caseload from time limits; and childcare spending was increased. Putting it all together, the new program would actually cost somewhat more than the old one.
Clinton inclined to sign the compromise bill, but now he faced strong opposition from the liberal wing of his party. Ultimately, though, he was convinced that the welfare issue had been poisoning the politics of poverty and race. It cast poor people as shirkers and the Democracts as the party of giveaways. He saw poor people as "scrappy survivors." His pollster, Dick Morris, helped settle the issue. See p. 151.
Clinton still faced strong opposition from the liberal wing of his party, but he was still sincerely interested in welfare reform... p. 150-152, p. 154
III. Groups: Flat Broke with Children, discussion questions from chapters 1-3