Marquita Hilliard

English 112-79
Prof. Connie Douglas
Rhetorical Analysis-Polished
5 December 2014

Does Welfare Reform Actually Help or Not?

Welfare Reform has become a trending topic, does it help or hinder? The Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which is a bill that despite its
obscure, title represented the most expensive revision of federal welfare policy in more than
thirty years. (Pimpare, Stephen. "Welfare Reform Has Increased Poverty.") Among other things
the bill ended the legal entitlement to welfare benefits, established time limits and work
requirements for participation in the program, and gave states much more authority to establish
other requirements and restrictions. (Pimpare, Stephen. "Welfare Reform Has Increased
Poverty.") There are two articles written in Poverty and Homelessness in 2009 which Michael
Tanner gives his opinion and some research on how the welfare reform has helped people out of
poverty. In the other article, Stephanie Pimpare gives her opinion and research on how welfare
reform has increased poverty.
The welfare reform bill was put in place to help mothers seek employment. Michael
Tanner expresses how welfare has not been perfect but with the requirements that are established
now, welfare reform helps family seek work and become independent. While there is still a high
number that still gets assistance while working, the requirements has lower that number.
Stephanie Pimpare expresses that although welfare rolls have been cut in half, although in many

states they are on the rise again, the reform had pushed many women off the polls and made it
hard for others to get on.
Reading, Stephanie Pimpare article, A Peoples History of Poverty in America, the
reader agreed with the welfare reform making people get off with its requirements and making it
harder for others to get on the poll.
Reform proponents have also made much of the fact that poverty rates fell in the
mid-1990s, but there is no evidence to suggest that welfare reform was the cause. Instead, it was
more likely the result of modestly higher wages at the lower end of the labor market, thanks to
the relatively low unemployment of the recent boom; families working more hours; and the
expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit which, while a genuine boon to the working poor, is
also a government subsidy to employers who pay low wages. (Pimpare, Stephen. "Welfare
Reform Has Increased Poverty.")
Stephanie Pimpare addresses how welfare reform has increased poverty, then she goes
into how recipients are struggling. She informs readers as to why welfare reform keeps people in
poverty one reason being that the working people wages simply havent kept up with wages.
According to the Urban Institute, one-third to one-half of those who left welfare had difficulty
providing food for their families. Half or more former recipients are poor many are poorer than
they were before, and some sixty percent of those who left the rolls in 2002 were unemployed.
states Pimpare. This author supports her reasoning with facts over opinions, she has statistics and
she did research from 1980 into the latest of 2004.
In reading the The Poverty of Welfare: Helping Others in Civil Society the reader
agreed that making some requirements people will more likely get off welfare and seek
employment.. The author wants his audience to be informed that there has been a large drop in
child poverty from 20% in 1996 to 17.8% in 2006 reported by the Census Bureau. The
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation an organization that is committed to finding
solutions to some of the most difficult problems facing the nation from reducing poverty and

bolstering economic self-sufficiency to improving public education and college graduation rates.
(http://www.mdrc.org) reveals that a majority of former welfare recipients believe that their

lives will be better in one to five years. Although some who have found employment still need
and receive some type of assistance, but not as much as those who have no employment. The
author could of given his readers a little more evidence by quoting actual individuals experiences
about being on welfare and getting off of welfare and how it has work for them. The author made
many valid points, but he should have given more facts with statistics and not just opinions. His
point could have been made more clearly and creditable if he would have given his readers more
sources and statistics to prove that welfare reform has helped people get out of poverty.
Author Stephanie Pimpare article A Peoples History of Poverty in America is more
effective because she gave us facts with research on her topic. Author Michael Tanner article
The Poverty of Welfare: Helping Others in Civil Society is more appealing to readers because
he gets personal and its easier to understand. Each article says that there are many views on the
ongoing Welfare Reform and that every experience is different for the participants of the reform.

Worked Cited:
http://www.mdrc.org
Pimpare, Stephen. "Welfare Reform Has Increased Poverty." Poverty and Homelessness.
Ed.Nol Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current Controversies. Rpt. from
"Why Welfare Reform Has Failed." ZNet. 2004. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.
7 Sept. 2014.
Tanner, Michael. "Welfare Reform Has Helped People Out of Poverty."
Poverty and Homelessness. Ed. Nol Merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current
Controversies. Rpt. from "Welfare ReformWhat Worked: Ten Years Later, Results
Suggest Critics Were Wrong." San Francisco Chronicle 21 Aug. 2006: B5. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 7 Sept. 2014.