WELFARE: Billions to Pay, and a Spreading Revolt

If there is one thing that politicians and the public agree on—and have agreed on for a decade or more—it is that the U.S. has the world's worst welfare mess. In fact, it has a monster: a system that costs some $45 billion a year at all levels of government, delivers benefits to 25 million people and requires a quarter of a million government employees to administer it. While most Americans would agree that financial help should be given to the unavoidably unemployed, the disabled, the fatherless young and the unsupported old, practically everyone feels that welfare has become...

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