Author: Ryan Holland

An article yesterday reported that Congress’ approval rating has dropped to single digits in California- just 9 percent.  For many it is a dark time in the world of politics, as recession, war, health costs, and debt crisis have converged into a nightmare of endless battles over ideologies and policies.  Here in my cubicle all I think and worry about all day is health care reform, and there are few lights at the end of the tunnel.  I saw one this morning, though, at an event hosted by AEI.

The topic was disability insurance reform.  Like most areas of federal oversight, SSDI is in need of a major overhaul.  This particular panel was looking back to the welfare reforms of the 1990’s and the recent Dutch disability reform in order to find inspiration for current reform.  In this discussion one of the panelists said, “If you think the current debates are bad, you should have been there in the 90’s.  It was the same stuff going on, maybe worse.  But the welfare reform passed.”

Before the 90s, welfare was essentially a blank check to anyone below a certain income.  It was heavily criticized because of its alleged incentives to not work.  Legislation passed in 1996 added caps to family welfare, limited the length of assistance, and required most recipients to work with two years of receiving welfare.  It also passed a large portion of responsibility to the states by funding them with block grants.   The late 90s saw a reduction of both poverty and welfare.

Still in 4^th grade, I wasn’t too big into politics in 1996.  It wasn’t until college, while I was taking a labor economics course, that I learned about the importance of the reforms of the 90s.  Learning about them brought wistful feelings of the “good old days,” when politics “actually worked.”  Surely nothing could be accomplished with all of the chicanery we see today.

But maybe politics haven’t changed as much as I think they have.  Maybe it is naïve of me to think that reform in the past had been anything but easy, or that just because congress is struggling right now they wouldn’t be able to pass any meaningful legislation when all is said and done.  It’s a small but much needed comfort to know that meaningful reform was enacted in the past, and so surely it can happen again.