Free Republic

Barack Obama's national plan for voluntary community service clearly illustrates his audacious goal to become the Nation's Community Organizer. "Barack Obama's Plan For Universal Voluntary Citizen Service" is subtitled "Helping All Americans Serve Their Country." "Universal" and "All" are only slight exaggerations. As president, he'd offer voluntary service programs for everyone except pre-schoolers through 5th grade. A substantial cafeteria of federal programs already serves this cuisine. But Obama plans to lengthen the serving line, considerably. Grab a tray and we'll sample some of his new dishes, plus some old plates he plans to enhance. Peace Corps A favorite since 1961....

Last week, the board got some answers. In 2006, 739 of Hennepin County's 11,000 MFIP recipients worked for no pay as a condition of continuing to receive welfare benefits. They worked an average of four to six weeks apiece at a long list of local nonprofits. Hennepin County contracts with an outside agency to provide the placements. (Under a separate program, the county spent $600,000 subsidizing the wages of another 200 MFIP recipients who were having trouble finding jobs.) Thirty-two of the people performing unpaid work were eventually hired by the agencies where they were working. Results for the rest...

Ten years ago next month, a bipartisan majority in Congress and a Democratic president launched America's welfare policy in a new and largely uncharted direction. It would be difficult to exaggerate the predictions of doom hurled against the Republican welfare reform bill signed by President Clinton on Aug. 22, 1996. Mr. Clinton had previously vetoed two versions of welfare reform when, with skill, daring and persistence, Republicans in the House and Senate pushed it through Congress a third time and put it again on the president's desk. In an act of remarkable political courage, Mr. Clinton defied senior members of...

<p>Children whose parents entered an experimental welfare-to-work program in Milwaukee during the 1990s improved socially and academically, say authors of a study being released today.</p> <p>These findings support the wisdom of expanding work supports for poor families, especially in child care, health care and the earned-income tax credit, said Aletha Huston, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. (MDRC) study.</p>