probably 15%, not the 7 and a half% people are reporting, there s so many people who just gave up looking for work. we really do, we do poorly as a country. and shockingly, we re just not a respected country any longer. what do you think he thinks when he hears his ratings for handling the economy approval. 37%, disapproval, 56%. i mean, those are terrible numbers. well, you look at the welfare roles and you look at the people that aren t working and chose not to work, because there s no reason for them to work when they can do just as well by not doing anything. you look at what s going on, and it s probably it shouldn t be that surprising to him. maybe he understands it better than we think. the fact is that he is really putting the country into a situation where people don t have the incentive to go forward, they don t have the incentive to create jobs. and if it continues to go this way, it s going to be very sad for the economy.
he wants congress to pass bipartisan legislation to repeal waivers of the work requirement. the house already acted in september. the senate has has yet to . bill: is there work requirement? the work requirement was called the cornerstone of welfare reform by a lot of people. welfare recipients dropped from 12.2 million to 4.5 million in the first decade after reform was passed in 1996. case lloyd s dropped something like 54%. president clinton wrote in new york times op-ed, quoting now, at the time i was widely criticized by liberals who thought the work requirements too harsh and conservatives who thought the work incentives too generous. 60% of the mothers who left welfare found work, far surpassing predictions of experts. welfare roles are now increasing again but many attribute that, bill, just to the simple unavailability of jobs. back to you. bill: thanks, doug mckelway on the story out of washington today. martha: here is a really cool story for you. near perfect conditions
every dollar we put into early childhood education can save $7 down the road by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, reducing violent crime, reducing the welfare roles, making sure the folks who have work, now they re paying taxes, all this stuff pays back huge dividends if we make the investment. so let s make this happen. let s make sure every child has the chance they deserve. [ applause ] as kids go through school, we ll recruit new math and science teachers to make sure they have the skills that the future demands. we ll help more young people in low-income neighborhoods get summer jobs. we ll redesign our high schools and encourage our kids to stay in high school so that the diploma they get leads directly to a good job once they graduate. [ applause ]
i think that the department is mismanaged. and there is some looking the other way going on here. there s really no incentive to get rid of the fraud and abuse in the program because really, these people get more money, states get more money, the more people they have on the welfare roles. so, you know, it s almost like the fox guarding the hen house here when they re doing their own oversight, their own investigations and own eligibility. greta: under that theory then, even if you don t live in massachusetts you should be angry if you live in other states, if it s federal tax money the more you have on the roles the rest of us are paying for a portion of your 19,000 missing people who are getting welfare, right or wrong? that s right. and we re talking, you know, if you talk about all the states that have these programs, there s fraud and abuse in all the programs, we re talking about billions and billions of taxpayer dollars and people just continue to look the other way. and it
mismanaged. and there is some looking the other way going on here. there s really no incentive to get rid of the fraud and abuse in the program because really, these people get more money, states get more money, the more people they have on the welfare roles. so, you know, it s almost like the fox guarding the hen house here when they re doing their own oversight, their own investigations and own eligibility. greta: under that theory then, even if you don t live in massachusetts you should be angry if you live in other states, if it s federal tax money the more you have on the roles the rest of us are paying for a portion of your 19,000 missing people who are getting welfare, right or wrong? that s right. and we re talking, you know, if you talk about all the states that have these programs, there s fraud and abuse in all the programs, we re talking about billions and billions of taxpayer dollars and people just continue to look the other way. and it s really time that we got serio