Ten years after welfare reform recipients decline while poverty rate increases

Safety net of services and support that once protected the poor lies in tatters

In early February, during an Interview with PBS' Tavis Smiley, Frank Luntz, a longtime Republican Party pollster and maestro of focus groups, pointed out that welfare reform was one of the biggest policy successes over the past 10 years. Luntz's evaluation mirrors the assessment of most conservative think tanks and public policy institutes. A deeper look, however, reveals a mixed bag of significant successes as well as glaring failures.