Does welfare-to-work work? Depends what you're trying to accomplish.
Twenty years ago this week, President Clinton signed a bill that replaced the federal government’s traditional cash welfare program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, aka welfare-to-work.
Has this been a success? That depends on your criteria, on what it is you want a welfare program to do.
Under TANF, taxpayers spend less on welfare than we used to. The program’s work requirements have the ring of good-old American tough love. And TANF empowered states to decide how to use federal money.
