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Ronald Reagan on Welfare & Poverty
President of the U.S., 1981-1989; Republican Governor (CA)
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Switch from project-based to tenant-based subsidy program
In 1983 Congress finally agreed with the Reagan administration that the Section 8 program was too costly. The Housing and
Urban-Rural Recovery Act of 1983 repealed the authorization for Section 8--for example, new construction and substantial rehabilitation--but left other moderate rehabilitation and elderly projects (Section 202).
Most importantly, conservatives switched from project-based assistance under Section 8 to housing vouchers and certificates, or a tenant-based subsidy program.
The tenants could choose their own apartment with a voucher or certificate--they finally had a choice!
Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p.113
, Apr 25, 1996
Cut back AFDC & other targeted poverty programs
But there were millions of Americans for whom it was not “morning again in America.” Reagan recognized this, though he rarely made the concession. He was an apostle of the marketplace whose premise had always been that the U.S. economic pie should be
enlarged, not that everyone should receive an equal slice. Despite the sea of happy children’s faces that graced the “feel-good” commercials, poverty exploded in the inner cities of America during the Reagan years, claiming children as its principal
victims. The reason for this suffering was that programs targeted to low-income families, such as AFDC, were cut back far more than programs such as Social Security. As a result of cuts in such targeted programs-including school lunches and subsidized
housing-federal benefit programs for households with incomes of less than $10,000 a year declined nearly 8% during the Reagan first term while federal aid for households with more than $40,000 income was almost unchanged.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 516-17
, Jul 2, 1991
Championed “workfare” as California Governor
Governor Reagan opposed Nixon’s proposal for reforming welfare. Reagan resisted efforts to pressure California into increasing cost-of-living payments to welfare recipients. In 1971, Reagan worked out a compromise. He brought California into compliance
with federal regulations, and Nixon promised not to stand in the way of a pilot program requiring able-bodied welfare recipients to work as a condition of receiving aid. The program had mixed success but established Reagan as the champion of “workfare.”
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 74-75
, Jul 2, 1991
Many homeless choose to be; ACLU fosters homelessness
I asked, “What about the homeless? Do you think you could have done anything for them?” Reagan said, “Well, it’s been so exaggerated. Millions, there aren’t millions. Real research reveals probably 300,000 or less, nationwide.
And a lot of those are the type of people that have made that choice.
For example, more than 40% of them are retarded, mentally deficient people, that is the result of the ACLU. Look at the girl in NY who went to court after Koch had ordered her to get off the street and be put in a shelter.
She went to court and actually fought, under her Constitutional rights, to go on living in that cardboard box on the street.“
Source: Dutch, by Edmund Morris, p.645-646
, Jan 9, 1988
As CA Governor, opposed AFDC as rewarding lack of work
[As Governor, Reagan addressed] California’s exploding welfare system. “Here in California,” he warned, “nearly a million children are growing up in the stultifying atmosphere of programs that reward people for not working, programs that separate
families and doom these children to repeat the cycle in their own adulthood.”Reagan had especial contempt for government touts whose job performance was appraised by the length of their welfare client lists. “They go out and actually recruit people to
be on welfare,“ he complained. His prejudice against AFDC was practical as well as moral. He believed it discriminated against the destitute-by encouraging the shiftless to promiscuity.
The California Welfare Reform Act became law in August 1971.
Reagan called it ”probably the most comprehensive“ such initiative in American history. It had an inspirational effect on welfare policy across America, but Reagan would have to wait until 1996 before his basic dream, the repeal of AFDC, became a reality
Source: Dutch, by Edmund Morris, p. 368-9 & 376
, Jan 4, 1971
Page last updated: Apr 28, 2013
