A great article about welfare "reform"!

An excellent op-ed by Peter Edelman and Barbara Ehrenreich about the failures of welfare "reform" appeared in the Washington Post today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402604.html

The 1996 welfare "reform" law (part of the right-wing "soak-the-poor" showboat of the era) has generally escaped criticism since it passed. But now the Bush recession is showing how rotten it truly is, as more and more Americans can't get assistance when they desperately need it.

Can't the states opt out like they're trying to do with health care reform? Or are our state legislators such wusses that they just go along with welfare "reform" no matter how much it hurts their constituents?

What a shortsighted experiment welfare "reform" turned out to be. Did its congressional supporters actually not account for trends like downsizing and outsourcing? Or did they just not care? I think I can guess.