What Donald Rumsfeld Knew We Didn’t Know About Iraq

Capt Walter Miller - Captain; Equally, I suspect that Mr. Bush was "misguided" by his "advisors" into doing something that he wanted to do but probably wouldn't have done if he had had an accurate assessment of the likely long-term results.

COL Ted Mc - i think George Bush is a cat killing sociopath and unindicted war criminal.

Walt

Sgt Todd Van Dyke - "It will be that they have succeeded in creating a welfare state of unprecedented scale."

I guess you mean by destroying the Middle Class.

What was often called "Welfare" was done away with in the '90s.

"In 1996, President Bill Clinton negotiated with the Republican-controlled Congress to pass the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act which drastically restructured the program. Among other changes, a lifetime limit of five years was imposed for the receipt of benefits, and the newly limited nature of the replacement program was reinforced by calling AFDC's successor Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Many Americans continue to refer to TANF as "welfare" or AFDC.

TANF has remained controversial. In 2003, LaShawn Y. Warren, an ACLU Legislative Counsel, said that TANF gives states an incentive "to deny benefits to those who need it most. The solution to getting people out of the cycle of poverty is not to prematurely kick them off welfare. Too many have been denied aid unfairly, creating a false impression that the number of people who need help has decreased."[18]

In 2006, a The New Republic editorial wrote, "A broad consensus now holds that welfare reform was certainly not a disaster—and that it may, in fact, have worked much as its designers had hoped."[19]

Critics now say that that TANF was successful during the Clinton Administration when the economy was booming, but failed to support the poor when jobs were no longer available during the downturn, particularly the Financial crisis of 2007–2010, and particularly after the lifetime limits imposed by TANF may have been reached by many recipients.[20]

The things you learn, huh?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_to_Families_with_Dependent_Children

Capt Walter Miller - Captain; I disagree. Although there is always SOME possibility that Mr. GW Bush would have liked to be one, there is one hell of a lot more evidence that he was simply an ineffectual dweeb who got in WELL over his head (because he was "electable").

You are also correct in your implication that one of the best ways of "reducing the welfare rolls" is to simply stop paying "welfare" to people. The situation regarding "welfare" has now become analogous to the situation regarding "unemployment" where the "true numbers" are not known because certain cadres have been tossed into the "DO NOT COUNT" category. It's like "emptying" a warehouse by slapping "DO NOT INVENTORY" stickers on everything and then doing an inventory.

Sgt Todd Van Dyke - Sergeant; The main difference between the "Ds" and the "Rs" (other than the addition of a little " ^ " under the "D" is that the "Ds" like to give "welfare" to people while the "Rs" like to give "welfare" to companies.