Welfare for work promise ‘didn’t pay off in end’

Harry Hamburg

President Bill Clinton with Lillie Harden, of Little Rock, Arkansas, Aug. 22, 1996, during White House ceremony where he signed law fulfilling brutal pledge to “end welfare as we know it.” Harden was touted as example of success of workfare programs that withdrew cash payments from children and families with low incomes. After suffering a stroke in 2002, Harden was denied Medicaid — which she had been able to receive while on welfare — and couldn’t afford a $450 prescription. In 2005 she told a journalist that Clinton’s promise to exchange “welfare for work” didn’t “pay off in the end.” She died in 2014 at age 59.