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Article: Welfare reform's unintended consequence: hurting of poor children.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- August 6, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The law of unintended consequences knows no boundaries, and not even important federal policy is immune to its unpredictable reach. Willing it away is futile. The challenge is to know what to do when the unintended occurs.
That's the challenge facing Congress and the Bush administration as they debate the reauthorization of the 1996 law that ended more than six decades of guaranteed public assistance to needy families and replaced it with a stricter, smaller safety net.
Welfare reform's top goals _ to reduce caseloads and push recipients into the workforce _ have generally been achieved, thanks to a sound economy and the monumental efforts of the poor ...