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The Reagan Administration and Public Assistance

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U.S. Social Welfare Reform

Part of the book series: International Series on Consumer Science ((ISCS))

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Abstract

This chapter examines changes in public assistance throughout the 1980s. Section 2.2 discusses the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the ideological attacks on the welfare state advanced by social scientists and political pundits for whom the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program had come to represent the limits of government beneficence. Legislative changes throughout the 1980s are presented in light of policy objectives and values. Section 2.3 highlights key aspects of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1981 that opened the way for welfare and work-related demonstration projects. Section 2.4 examines the emergence of the Congressional consensus linking welfare to work. Section 2.5 discusses passage of the Family Support Act (FSA) of 1988 (P.L. 100-485), which cemented the link between welfare and work and whose provisions are also presented. Section 2.6 highlights the continued attacks on the welfare state in general and the AFDC program in particular during the George H.W. Bush administration, setting the stage for the overhaul of AFDC during the Clinton administration, the subject of Chap. 3.

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  1. Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, Amsterdam Ave. 2495, 10033, New York, NY, USA

    Richard K. Caputo

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  1. Richard K. Caputo
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Correspondence to Richard K. Caputo .

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Caputo, R.K. (2011). The Reagan Administration and Public Assistance. In: U.S. Social Welfare Reform. International Series on Consumer Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7674-1_2

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