More than 35 million Americans have incomes that fall below the poverty line, and more than one in five American children are poor. In 1994, nearly half of all poor children under the age of six lived in families with incomes falling below half of the poverty line. That figure doubled over the 20 years preceding 1994. The number of people who work full time and are still poor has risen sharply as well. In 1975, 6% of young children who lived in families with one full-time worker were poor. By 1994, that figure had gone up to 15%. Despite these trends, there has been a decline in recent years in the number of recipients needing welfare assistance. In January 1993, for example, 5.5% of the total population was on welfare, but in January 1997, only 3.9% of the total population was receiving welfare payments.

Contrary to popular opinion, welfare payments are not overly generous: a U.S. Department of...