that s when the economic growth and wages took off. i hear what you are saying but there is the housing bubble and the internet bubbling percolating at that time. here is the thing, the perspective you won t hear about in the state of the union coming tuesday night. that is why is this economy creating mix jobs, the low-paying job? that is the problem with income and story behind income and equality that president will hammer tuesday night. low paying jobs replacing high-paying jobs in this economy. that is the structure problem. go back to the clinton era reforms. not just bill clinton. it was the era. brought there by republicans who proposed this in the first place. there were specific requirements, work requirements. there were time limits put on welfare. aren t those a good thing? didn t it change welfare and aren t we going against it now? it did change healthcare.
rich karlgaard, elizabeth macdonald, john tamby, rick unger and mike ozanian. how do we get back on track? cut welfare benefit not out of cruelty but out of compassion. there is nothing more life affirming than having a job but if you know the federal government will send you a check either way, less urgency to go out and find a job or adjust your wage demands to new realities. it s ultimately welfare serves as a work deterrent in the antieconomic growth after that. emac, the point is after the reforms, in the clinton era, the republican and democratic reforms we had a massive decrease in the number of welfare applicants and the case load plunge from 12 million in 96 to 5.9 million. more than half. good effect. we re going in the opposite direction. i hear you. i don t like what the administration is doing in terms of the band aids because
i like the e.w.j. japanese index funds. i like that. i like abi. more than just printing money. a real deal. gentlemen, thank you. cost of freedom continues on the place for business. us. the era of big government is over. remember that 18 years ago. then president clinton declaring the big government was dead going in his second term. he said it as washington was in a massive reform of welfare. well now, with president obama getting ready for his second term state of the union address, welfare going the other way. record one in five households are now on food stamps and a whopping 100 million americans are receiving some sort of food assistance. how did we get derailed from ending welfare as we know it? how do we get back on track? hi, everybody, i m david asman. welcome to forbes on fox. go in focus with steve forbes,
because there is too much government, the economy is not creating the jobs that would lure people back in the workforce. it s cool what rick is arguing for. it creates disincentive. if you re a jogger you are less likely to run on rainy day. i was talk about the working poor. you are pushing the argument in another direction. i address the working poor. people who work in fast food rest a large big box retailers who can t get paid enough money even going to work to take care of their family adequately. that is what i m talking about. it s not the entire budget obviously of the food stamp program but a large chunk of it. after clinton cut welfare, the economy took off. bill clinton s first two years were slow economically. hold on, hold on. funds shifted more from the government to the private sector. john is right.