As appeared in The Atlanta Journal & Constitution, March 17, 2002

In the months leading up to the bipartisan welfare reform bill signed by President Clinton in 1996, the nation was regaled with horror stories about starving children and destitute families thrown onto the streets if "reform" was instituted.

The reality of welfare reform is far different, as exemplified by the millions of people who are now working and families that are now independently responsible for their future. As Congress takes up the next generation of welfare reform proposed by President Bush, the same sad tales of the starving and destitute are being told; this time, lawmakers should be listening to the facts.

According to Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, there are half the number of families receiving welfare now as in 1996, when federal child care funds were doubled to nearly $5 billion. Current funding levels proposed by Bush total $4.8 billion for those still receiving child care welfare benefits. Clearly, taxpayer funding is not the problem, as the Bush proposal maintains a healthy, if not overzealous, budget for families and children.

Near-sighted critics love to harp on the Bush work requirement. Current welfare-to-work programs that receive federal funds require up to half of all recipients to be involved in "work-related activities" 30 to 35 hours a week -- not exactly a crushing burden. The Bush plan only increases the requirement to 50 to 70 percent of all recipients working in "constructive activities" 40 hours a week -- a modest proposal, to say the least.

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) slammed the Bush proposal as "pretty unbelievable," underscoring the fiction over fact approach of many liberal proponents of the welfare system. The fact is, the Bush 40-hour-week proposal addresses a flaw in recent welfare reform programs that show 58 percent of adult welfare recipients were doing no work for benefits in 1999. Further, the Bush plan is not a "work-or-else" proposal. Under the new work requirements, recipients would be required to work two days a week, with the other three days spent in education, training, substance-abuse treatment or other self-sufficiency programs.

The human side of the story makes the continuation of welfare reform an imperative. Child poverty dropped to less than 18 percent from 22.7 percent in 1992, the biggest five-year drop in nearly 30 years. Teenage birth rates fell 20 percent from the early 1990s to the end of the century to all-time lows. Overall, welfare recipient numbers in the United States have collapsed to approximately 6.1 million today from 13.6 million in 1992.

Perhaps the most inspiring result of welfare reform in progress is the establishment and maintenance of two-parent families. Under the Minnesota Family Investment Plan, which combines strong work requirements with generous financial work incentives, 11 percent of the three-year program participants were married compared with less than 7 percent under the old welfare system. Further, 67 percent of two-parent families under MFIP stayed married compared with 49 percent under the old system.

Once rewarded for single-parenthood and multiple children under the old welfare system, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and Bush's additional reforms promise stronger families, not dependent ones.

While demographic trends and economic downturns have a measurable impact on the successes of welfare reform, the culture of dependency has changed. No longer is it acceptable for multigenerations of recipients to linger in perpetual reliance on public assistance with no expectation of work.

The Bush proposal to increase that expectation, coupled with a generous pay guarantee and continued access to self-help and educational programs, is the responsible step forward just as the facts suggest.

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