Robert Rector

Robert Rector is a senior policy analyst and welfare researcher at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank that promotes conservatism and free enterprise.

Since the beginning of the War on Poverty in 1965, government spending on welfare has skyrocketed, with per-person spending increasing fivefold. This prolific spending has contributed to a breakdown in values and conduct among the poor. The welfare system discourages two-parent families from remaining intact and has destroyed the family structure in low-income communities. Welfare reform must achieve reductions in illegitimacy, increase the stability of two-parent families, bring soaring welfare costs under control, and establish serious work requirements for able- bodied welfare recipients.

Since World War II, Presidents and Members of Congress have promised American taxpayers that they would reform, in a serious way, America’s failed welfare system. The reality, however, is that...