Nicholas Kristof -- " IN 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a controversial compromise bill for welfare reform, promising to “end welfare as we know it.” I was sympathetic to that goal at the time, but I’ve decided that I was wrong. What I’ve found in my reporting over the years is that welfare “reform” is a misnomer and that cash welfare is essentially dead, leaving some families with children utterly destitute."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/opinion/sunday/why-i-was-wrong-about-welfare-reform.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article

"Even the well-being of poor women and children, Hillary's great signature issue in her youth, had to hit the bricks when the time arrived in 1996 for welfare reform, a measure she not only supported but for which she says she lobbied." -- Thomas Frank, "Listen Liberal", page 219