SOCIAL POLICY| 459The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the most successful programs
for providing income support for the working poor. Established in 1975, the pro-
gram aims to help poor people move from welfare to work: it provides tax cred-
its to those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes and are relatively poor.
It is intended to off set the burden of Social Security taxes, which all workers pay
as part of payroll taxes. In 2011 an individual could qualify for an EITC if she
or he had two children and earned less than $40,964, one child and earned less
than $36,052, or no children and earned less than $13,660; the fi gures are slightly
higher if the individuals are married and fi ling jointly.^52 The federal government
provided $59.5 billion in EITCs in 2010 to 26.8 million recipients, with an average
monthly benefi t of $185 per recipient.^53
Welfare is straight cash assistance for people who are not working and do not
qualify for unemployment compensation. The primary welfare program for the
latter half of the twentieth century was Aid to Families with Dependent Chil-
dren (AFDC). This program became increasingly unpopular through the 1980s,
and in 1992 Bill Clinton was the fi rst Democratic presidential nominee to cam-
paign against welfare, promising to “end welfare as we know it.”^54 President Clin-
ton did not make this the top priority of his fi rst year in offi ce and instead focused
on health care reform and balancing the budget. Clinton began addressing welfare
reform in 1993 by appointing a task force on the issue. When the Republicans took
over Congress in 1994, the momentum for reform grew. Clinton and Congress
haggled over the specifi cs for two years but then agreed on a major reform called
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
The new law set a fi ve-year lifetime limit on welfare benefi ts, required single
mothers with children above age fi ve to fi nd work after two years of receiving ben-
efi ts, required unmarried mothers who were under age 18 to live with an adult and
attend school to get full benefi ts, denied benefi ts to drug users who were convicted
of a felony, and limited people who were not raising children and were between
the ages of 18 and 50 to three months of food stamps in any three-year period in
which they were not working. Perhaps most important, welfare lost its status as an
entitlement and would be administered by the states with the assistance of federal
block grants. In February 2006, Congress reauthorized TANF and required that
half the recipients in a state’s caseload participate in work activities for at least
30 hours per week.
Wel fa re refor m si g n i fi cantly reduced the number of people on welfare, as Fig-
ure 14.9 shows, but it has been criticized for being too hard on the people who need
government assistance the most. Critics also point out that TANF block grants
have not been adjusted for infl ation since they were fi rst created in 1996.^55
EDUCATION POLICY
Education policy is largely the domain of state and local governments. For the fi rst
century of our nation’s history, the national government played virtually no role
in education. One important exception was the Morrill Act in 1862, also known
as the Land Grant College Act, which gave land to eligible states to establish col-
leges focusing on practical professions such as agriculture and mechanical arts.
More than 75 colleges and universities today are land grant institutions. The next
major forays by the federal government into education policy came with the GI Bill
of Rights in 1944, which provided access to higher education for returning World
War II veterans, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which
was part of President Johnson’s War on Poverty. The Department of EducationAid to Families with Depen-
dent Children (AFDC) The
federal welfare program in place
from 1935 until 1995, when it was
replaced by Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) under
President Clinton.Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) The
welfare program that replaced Aid
to Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC) in 1996, eliminating the
entitlement status of welfare, shift-
ing implementation of the policy to
the states, and introducing several
new restrictions on receiving aid.
These changes led to a signifi cant
decrease in the number of welfare
recipients.