Karl Zinsmeister

Karl Zinsmeister is the editor in chief of the American Enterprise magazine, a bimonthly publication of the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy research organization in Washington, D.C.

Despite presidential promises to reform welfare, the number of welfare recipients has reached a record high—almost twenty million Americans at an annual cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. Current welfare-reform strategies that mandate public employment will not be effective because welfare recipients lack the skills and work ethic to become productive and governments lack the discipline to ensure worker effectiveness. Rather than focusing on providing income to support single mothers, welfare reform should encourage marriage among the poor and should strive to keep two-parent families intact.

At this point, it’s almost a kabuki ritual. Driven by public distress, leaders in Washington promise...