We talk a great deal

We talk a great deal about the policy failures of the 1990s — Clinton’s policy towards Iraq, Clinton’s policy towards Arafat, Clinton’s policy towards North Korea, etc. But here Mona Charen discusses a great policy success of the 90s — the Republican-enacted welfare reform. Charen notes that in the first five years after welfare reform was enacted in 1996, poverty among children decreased from 14.7 million to 11.7 million. And child poverty, which always increases during recessions, is “flat” now, with black child poverty at its lowest point in American history. In other words, the dire predictions of liberals about the consequences of welfare reform turned out to be flatly wrong. How is it that, while events have proven the Democrats consistently wrong and the Republicans consistently right on the major issues of the past decade, the parties remain equally popular?