The Republican Revolution: Candidates for Big Achievements

1
The Republican Revolution Candidates for Big
Achievements

• House Rules
• - Term limit for Speaker
• - Term limit for Committee Chairs
• - Staff cuts
• - Congress subject to its own laws
• Balanced budget
• Smaller government
• Tax Cuts
• Abolish agricultural subsidies
• Medicare reforms (e.g., Medical Savings Accounts)
• Welfare reform

2
Total Revenue vs. Total Spending as a Percentage
of GDP
Republican Takeover
Year
22
Prepared by The Brookings Welfare Reform Beyond
Initiative, May 2004
Source U.S. Budget 2005, Historical Tables
3
Overview of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
• Non-marital Births
• Supplemental Security Income for Children
• Child Support Enforcement
• Welfare for Non-citizens
• Welfare for prisoners, parole violators,
  convicted felons
• Child Care
• Food Stamps
• Drug Addiction Alcoholics
• Abstinence Education
• Charitable Choice

4
Replace AFDC with TANF

1. End Cash Entitlement 2. Block
Grant Funding 3. Work Requirements 4.
Sanctions 5. 5-Year Time Limit
5

• If Attila the Hun were alive today and elected to
  Congress, he would be delighted with this bill
  that is before us today and proud to cast his
  vote for it. H.R.4, the Personal Responsibility
  Act, is the most callous, coldhearted and
  mean-spirited attack on this countrys children
  that I have ever seen in my life.
• Former Rep. Cardiss Collins, floor debate, March
  21, 1995
• I am concerned, frightened, that this bill will
  leave children hungry and homeless. I am afraid
  the streets of our Nations cities might someday
  look like the streets of the cities of Brazil.
  Walk around there and you see children begging
  for money, begging for food, and even at 8 or 9
  years old engaging in prostitution.
• Senator Frank Lautenberg, conference report,
  August 1, 1996
• There is an even higher precedent that we who
  profess to follow in our Judeo-Christian nation.
  The Old Testament prophets and the New Testament
  Messiah made plain Gods mandate to protect the
  poor and the weak and the young. The Senate and
  the House welfare bills do not meet this test.
• Marian Wright Edelman, Washington Post, November
  3, 1995

6
Benefit Receipt by Noncitizens in Four Welfare
Programs, 1995 and 2001
Program
Source Ways Means, Green Book 200, J-30
7
Number of Noncitizens Receiving SSI, 1982-2002
785,000
703,000
128,000
Source Ways Means, Green Book 2004
8
Number of Children Receiving SSI Benefits,
1985-2002
917,048
914,821
227,384
Source Social Security Administration
9
Child Support Number of Cases with
Collections, 1996-2002
7.8
4.0
Source U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services Annual Report
10
Total Child Support Collections, 1990-2002
20.1
6.0
Source U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services Annual Report
11
Paternities Established, 1990-2002
1.5
0.4
Source U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services Annual Report
12
Teen Birthrate, 1980-2002
62.1
53.0
43.8
Source National Center for Health Statistics
13
Number of Births, Birth Rate, and Percent of
Births to Unmarried Women, 1940-2002
1358.8
43.6
33.8
7.1
89.5
3.79
Source National Center for Health Statistics,
various years
14
AFDC/TANF Caseload, 1960-2003
5.05
2.03
0.95
Note 2003 data based on 3 month average
January-March, 2003.

Source Congressional Research Service and U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services
15
Percentage of Married, Single,and Never-Married
Mothers Working, 1985-2002
66.7
65.8
Source Gary Burtless, The Brookings Institution,
2002
16
Earnings Increase, Welfare Income Falls for
Bottom Two Fifths of Female-Headed Families,
1993-2002
Source Richard Bavier with U.S. Census Bureau
data (Welfare income is cash, school lunch, food
stamps, and housing constant 2002 dollars).
17
Poverty in Female-Headed Households and
Married-Couple Households, 1974-2002
43.7
33.7
6.8
6.0
Source U.S. Census Bureau
18
Poverty Rates Before and After Government
Programs, 1993 and 2002
Source Ways and Means, Green Book, 2004. Table
H-20.
19
Support for Working Families Increases
Dramatically, 1984-1999

51.7
5.6
Spending in 1999 under 1984
Law 1999 Law
Source Congressional Budget Office
20
Cumulative Savings in SSI, Food Stamps, and
Medicaid, 1996 - 2002
Source Ways and Means, Green Book 2004
21
Federal and State Spending on Means-Tested
Programs in Constant Dollars,1968-2002
Republican Takeover
Total Spending (in billions)
Year
Source U.S. Budget 2005, Historical Tables
22
Accomplishments of Welfare Reform

• Big and permanent savings in federal spending
• Elimination of welfare for drug addicts and
  alcoholics
• Elimination of welfare for prisoners, parole
  violators, and convicted felons
• Improved efficiency (and cost savings) in SSI
  childrens program
• Increased child support payments (esp. to mothers
  leaving welfare)
• Reduction in welfare for noncitizens
• Moderation in illegitimacy rates
• Conversion of cash welfare from entitlement to
  mandatory work program
• - reduction in welfare rolls and welfare
  dependency
• - increase in work by female family heads
• - reduction in welfare dependency
• - increase in family income
• - reduction in child poverty
• - continued decline in caseload during recession