My most recent commentary just came out today. I remember welfare repeal like it was yesterday. Probably the two things I most remember are Clinton’s use of black single mothers to sell the program, and the fact that Maxine Waters didn’t even fight the bill. Bad news. And even though the bill hasn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, it’s still bad policy.
I don’t think that it has hurt as much because of the bureaucracy and infrastructure set in place over decades. The fact that was Welfare Reform doesn’t mean that the folks receiving it will immediately be kicked off. I do think that some of the people have taken advantage of some of the programs that have been offered over the years to assist them. Things like, schooling with daycare.
I do believe that there are some issues with Welfare that specifically work against the family structure (blacks in particular). It seems that the family structure was more and more separated during the late 1960’s going forward. I’m sure that there were more variables, but I think that some of the social program structures were designed to keep black women as the head of households and keep black men out of the picture. But, hey, I could be wrong.