Remarkably, poor women who took jobs didn't end up in minimum wage jobs for long either. On average, single mothers earned $11.60 an hour in 2001 -- a recession year -- considerably above the minimum wage. Among single moms who left welfare after 1994, each extra year they worked between 1994 and 1998 produced an additional 2 percent in hourly pay after adjusting for inflation. If they stayed with the same employer, they earned another 1 percent per year on top of the 2 percent.
It isn't just poor women who benefited either. According to another study by researchers at Northwestern University, published last month, welfare reform has actually improved the social development of children whose moms left welfare to take jobs. According to this study, adolescents improved their sense of self-worth when their mothers went to work as their mothers became less depressed and anxious.
Given welfare reform's enviable record -- it clearly is one of the most successful pieces of social legislation of the last 50 years -- you might think liberals would be jumping on the bandwagon to endorse the bill's reauthorization. Think again.
Legislation to extend the law and toughen the very work requirements that have proved so valuable recently passed the House of Representatives. The House bill would require states gradually to move an increasing percentage of their caseload from welfare to work from the current 50 percent to 70 percent, and increase the number of hours recipients would be required to work or be enrolled in training programs from 30 to 40. But only 11 Democrats voted for the measure, which still faces a battle in the Senate.
It's as if liberals would rather keep single mothers poor and dependent on public largess than admit that tough love works -- and that's a story Americans shouldn't miss, war or no war.