Helping the Poor

Ten years ago (August, 1996) President Clinton signed into law the Welfare Reform Act.

Rich Lowry looks at the unprecedented changes it has spawned:

• welfare caseloads have dropped 60%
• child poverty has dropped in each year--1.6 million fewer children live in poverty
• the black-child-poverty rate has dropped from 41.5% to 30%
• the portion of single mothers who were employed grew from 58% to almost 75%
• employment grew by 50% for never-married mothers

In related news, Marvin Olasky cites a book coming out in December by Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks, who asks: "So who is more compassionate: the religious right, or the secular left? The answer appears to be the former. The reason for this, however, revolves around religion, not political ideology. The relatively large religious right and fairly small religious left are both far more compassionate than secularists from either political side. The most uncompassionate group of all—in attitudes and behaviors—is a subset of conservatives who are also secularists. Inordinate media attention to this group may help explain why conservatives are often accused of being uncompassionate."