I've Been Accused of being Liberal. Okay I'm laying my cards on the table
Welfare: Some amount of social net is required. The current system is bloated. Far too much money is spent on bureaucracy. That bureaucracy allows for fraud, which I think happens far less than many think it does. The "welfare mother" is largely a myth and no one really wants to spend their life living on welfare. However, not everyone is motivated and they sometimes need a push to get off their butts. The key is that people need to be properly educated so that they feel some hope of bettering their lives through work. In order for that to work people also need to feel safe in their homes. We need to keep people educated and safe so that they see an opportunity better than collecting welfare or dealing drugs.
Widge, you make so many good points, I hate to highlight this one, but I think I need to clarify something. The "welfare mother" is far from being a myth and fraud happens much more than anyone would imagine.
My last two jobs with the Mississippi DHS were as a Fraud Investigator and as an Employment Coordinator/Job Readiness Instructor. In the former, I saw that fraud not only regularly exists, but is somewhat expected, especially from food stamp recipients. The benefits are too great and the penalties too light to effectively deter people from committing fraud. Additionally, there is almost no one looking for fraud so it largely goes undetected (or at least did go undetected until DHS and Social Security computers starting talking to one another). Now I'm not talking about the kind of fraud where people are driving new cars and getting assistance. I'm mostly talking about not reporting all income or family members (who usually have income).
I don't know where you got the impression that the "welfare mother" is largely a myth, but a lifestyle of dependency is alive and well. These mothers are truly masters of networking, because they know where every opportunity exists for continuing to live without actually having to lead productive lives, other than raising their children. Before anyone thinks that statement is too harsh, consider this. When I would teach job preparedness classes to welfare mothers, I would often ask the 25-30 women in attendance "Why do you think it is that illegal aliens have come into our community and taken many of the jobs you could do." Invariable, honest individuals in my classes would respond, "Because they will work and we won't."
It's not that none of them ever worked or even that some don't see the intrinsic value in working. It is that they have little incentive to change their circumstances. That's why I believe that the TANF Work Program (which I led here) is the only "welfare" program that I have seen that has any acceptable rate of success. Women had a month to take a job readiness class, conduct a job search and become employed. If they stayed employed, they would get assistance with chald care and transportation costs. If they quit my class or did not stay employed, they lost their TANF check (what most people think of when they say "welfare check").
So what is the answer? How do we interrupt the cycle of poverty and dependence on the government for basic needs? I agree that education is important, but that can't help everyone. The bottom line is that I believe that all benefits for food stamps or TANF should be time limited and tied to a work program, unless there is an exemption. If people participate and are moving toward self-sufficiency, then they receive benefits. If they do not cooperate, commit fraud or make no effort to become self-sufficient, they lose their benefits.
IMO, there must be a safety net to prevent the truly needy, disabled, unemployable or elderly from going hungry. But there is something inherently wrong with a healthy 25-year-old mother getting $500 in food stamps and a $194 check for herself and three children while a 70-year-old widow on Social Security may be lucky to qualify for $20 worth of food stamps.
I truly want to help those in need. But I don't think it helps them to perpetuate a system that creates generations of people dependent on the government for almost every need.