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When welfare reform was first enacted a decade ago, it was vilified by its critics, but

hail as a panacea for poverty and social ills by its supporters.

Now, 10 years on, Director of Health and Welfare Studies, Michael Tanner, discusses

welfare reforms successes and failures.

What were some of the responses from pundits and legislators after President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill into law ten years ago.

When welfare reform was first passed, the critics on the left predicted all sorts of disasters.

People spoke of a million and a half to two and a

half million children thrown into poverty. The Nation magazine wrote about

people dying in mass starvation in America.

It really was in a kind of hysterical reaction.

And the simple fact is, none of those dire predictions have come through.

Many experts predicted that poverty rates would actually climb, especially among single mothers.

Poverty has actually declined since welfare reform was enacted.

It's up a little bit from where it was a couple of years ago. This is sort of a lingering effect of the recession after 9-11 and some of these structural changes in our economy.

But overall, it's down since welfare reform was enacted and not just poverty overall

child poverty has declined and child poverty among African Americans is at one of the

lowest levels it's been in a long time.

Do you think that it has been an overall success?

I think you can call welfare reform a modest success.

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