Unemployment is growing by leaps and bounds. Despite the thousands who are in dire straits and who need public assistance eight of the the twelve states with the highest unemployment rates have reduced or kept constant the number of people receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the main cash welfare program for families with children.
“The deepening recession offers a fresh challenge to the program, which was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 amid bitter protest and became one of the most closely watched social experiments in modern memory.”
“The program, which mostly serves single mothers, ended a 60-year-old entitlement to cash aid, replacing it with time limits and work requirements, and giving states latitude to discourage people from joining the welfare rolls. While it was widely praised in the boom years that followed, skeptics warned it would fail the needy when times turned tough.”
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