Welfare reform, phase two: doing less with less.(Economic Bridges)

IN 1996, WELFARE REFORM WAS RARELY FAR FROM THE HEADLINES. ACROSS THE country, states were overhauling their cash assistance programs for poor families. That summer, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a deeply controversial revamping of the federal-state system. The new law ended public assistance as a federal entitlement, in favor of a complex system of state block grants with work requirements and time limits.

Thanks to a fortuitous rendezvous with a full-employment economy, a great many people who had been receiving welfare found jobs. Many, but certainly not all, ...

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