Trump to tweak U.S. welfare system
WASHINGTON — Overhauling welfare was one of the defining goals of Bill Clinton’s presidency, starting with a campaign promise to “end welfare as we know it,” continuing with a bitter policy fight and producing change that remains hotly debated 20 years later.
Now, President Donald Trump wants to put his stamp on the welfare system, apparently in favour of a more restrictive policy. He says “people are taking advantage of the system.”
Trump, who has been signalling interest in the issue for some time, said this past week that he wants to tackle the issue after the tax overhaul he is seeking by the end of the year. He said changes were “desperately needed in our country” and that his administration would soon offer plans.
For now, the president has not offered details. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said more specifics were likely early next year. But the groundwork has already begun at the White House and Trump has made his interest known to Republican lawmakers.
Paul Winfree, director of budget policy and deputy director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, told a recent gathering that he and another staffer had been charged with “working on a major welfare reform proposal.” He said they have drafted an executive order on the topic that would outline administration principles and direct agencies to come up with recommendations.
“The president really wants to lead on this,” Winfree said. “He has delivered that message loud and clear to us. We’ve opened conversations with leadership in Congress to let them know that is the direction we are heading.”
Confusion for Trump supporters
LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Donald Trump is feuding with LaVar Ball and LeVar Burton is taking the hit on Twitter.
Burton is an actor best known for playing Lt. La Forge in “Star Trek” on TV and film. Ball is the father of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball and UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball, one of three student
Trump said in October that welfare was “becoming a very, very big subject, and people are taking advantage of the system.”
Clinton ran in 1992 on a promise to change the system but struggled to get consensus on a bill, with Democrats divided and the Republicans pushing aggressive changes. Four years later, Clinton signed a law that replaced a federal entitlement with grants to the states, placed a time limit on how long families could get aid and required recipients to go to work eventually.
It has drawn criticism from some liberal quarters ever since.
During her presidential campaign last year, Democrat Hillary Clinton faced activists who argued that the law fought for by her husband punished poor people.
Kathryn Edin, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who has been studying welfare since the 1990s, said the law’s legacy has been to limit the cash assistance available to the very poor and has never become a “springboard to work.” She questioned what kinds of changes could be made, arguing that welfare benefits are minimal in many states and there is little evidence of fraud in other antipoverty programs.
Still, Edin said that welfare has “never been popular even from its inception. It doesn’t sit well with Americans in general.”
Robert Rector said he would like to see more work requirements for a range of anti-poverty programs and stronger marriage incentives, as well as strategies to improve results for social programs.
“This is a good system,” he said. “We just need to make this system better.”
Budget director Mick Mulvaney said this year, “If you are on food stamps and you are able-bodied, we need you to go to work.” players recently arrested in China for shoplifting.
Trump tweeted that Ball was an “ungrateful fool” for not being more appreciative of presidential intervention in LiAngelo Ball’s case. Some of the president’s followers in turn attacked Burton on Twitter, with one calling him a “has been actor with a thief for a son.”
Burton and Ball were unfazed, both tweeting Thanksgiving wishes to their followers Thursday.