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  • welfare reform

    The RSC Budget: A First Look

    The Republican Study Committee (RSC) has proposed a budget that balances in just four years while holding tax revenue at near its historical average. It advances more aggressive entitlement reforms than the House Budget Committee plan, including Social Security, and features deeper spending cuts. Nevertheless, the plan also suffers weaknesses, … More

    House Votes to Restore Welfare Work Requirements

    On March 13, the House voted to restore the work requirements that the Obama Administration attempted to gut from the 1996 welfare reform law. The Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act of 2013 was introduced in late February by a group of conservatives to undo the Administration’s actions. The … More

    Morning Bell: Welfare Reform Is Back

    Last summer, the Obama Administration gutted the successful 1996 welfare reform law by offering to waive its work requirements. Now the debate is back, as several Members of Congress are trying to restore the reforms that helped so many out of poverty. The work requirements were the heart and soul … More

    House Takes Steps to Make Welfare Work Again

    Members of Congress are taking action to confront last summer’s move by the Obama Administration to gut the 1996 welfare reform law of its work requirements. The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources held a hearing Thursday to investigate the Administration’s action to waive the enormously successful and … More

    Senator Sessions Makes Case for Freeing People from Welfare

    “No longer can we measure compassion by how much we spend on poverty but how many people we help to lift out of poverty,” says Senator Jeff Sessions (R–AL). Since the War on Poverty began back in the 1960s, the federal government has spent nearly $20 trillion (adjusting for inflation) … More

    Morning Bell: Taking America from Welfare State to Opportunity Society

    “I must go to college!” insists eight-year-old Pierre William. Such planning may seem unusual in a second grader. But Pierre is lucky. He’s attending a private school in the District of Columbia using funds from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. That’s opened his eyes to the possibilities that only a … More

    Best of the Morning Bell in 2012

    Continuing our series highlighting the best of 2012, we wanted to bring you the most popular Morning Bells of the past year. The Morning Bell started five years ago and has grown to be Heritage’s signature e-newsletter. If you have not subscribed to it, you can do that today. 1. Obama … More

    Morning Bell: Are We Helping Poor Americans?

    At the end of the year, many people take time to make charitable donations. But caring for those in need is a year-round responsibility—and when it comes to public policy, conservatives have an important opportunity to articulate an effective response to poverty and social breakdown in America. A half-century into … More

    CHART: Paul Ryan Lays Out a Vision for Reforming Welfare, Fighting Poverty

    In his speech today at Cleveland State University, Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) laid out a vision for reforming the nation’s approach to poverty. “With few exceptions, government’s approach has been to spend lots of money on centralized, bureaucratic, top-down anti-poverty programs,” Ryan stated. “The mindset behind this approach is that … More

    Morning Bell: Obama’s Imperial Presidency, Part II

    Sometimes the law just gets in the way. The Obama Administration hasn’t needed Congress to enact new regulations on the Internet, businesses, energy production, and religious institutions. It has used its power to give struggling labor unions a new edge. It has granted amnesty to illegal immigrants. This blatant disregard … More