Ehrlich on Washington column, August 24, 1997

MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1407 York Road, Suite 304 Lutherville, Maryland 21093 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. 315 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Week of August 24, 1997 WELFARE REFORM: ONE YEAR LATER It has been a year since the welfare reform bill I cosponsored and helped enact into law was passed by Congress. So far, its dramatic results are silencing the critics. A year of greater state flexibility, tougher work requirements, and changed attitudes and objectives in welfare policy have produced what 30 years of big government programs could not — a significant decline in welfare rolls and many lives changed for the better. The percentage of people on welfare is now at its lowest level since 1970, with every state except Alaska and Hawaii recording sharp declines in their welfare rolls since the passage of the welfare reform law. Even the Washington Post calls the decline of 200,000 a month, "the deepest and most sustained in U.S. history." Last year, critics predicted a "race-to-the-bottom" if states were given complete power to move their residents from welfare to work as they best saw fit. They feared states would be stingy and negligent in helping their residents in need, choosing to use their valuable resources in other areas. They cried that it was “cruel” and “mean-spirited” to ask able-bodied citizens to take responsibility for improving their own situations. But the horror stories fabricated by opponents of welfare reform have not materialized. Instead, there are many moving and inspiring personal success stories of people who have found triumph, not tragedy, in welfare reform. One former welfare recipient, a mother of three who has spent eight of her 12 adult years on the welfare rolls, was quoted in a Boston newspaper as saying: “The resources I've pulled together since coming off welfare, on my own and with the help of my family and friends, have (