Nick Kristof Is Wrong About Welfare Reform

Pundits so rarely admit they were wrong that the first thing I want to say about Nick Kristof’s retraction of his previous support for welfare form is, Bravo. May it be the first of many such rethinkings on the New York Times Op-Ed page. (Looking at you, Tom Friedman.)

In his biweekly Times column last Sunday, headlined “Why I Was Wrong About Welfare Reform,” Kristof writes, “In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a controversial compromise bill for welfare reform, promising to ‘end welfare as we know it.’ I was sympathetic to that goal at the time, but I’ve decided that I was wrong. What I’ve found in my reporting over the years is that welfare ‘reform’ is a misnomer and that cash welfare is essentially dead, leaving some families with children utterly destitute.”  Which brings me to my second thought: Oh, great, now he tells us. Did it really take 20 years to see where welfare reform was heading?


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