Dick Armey

In the following viewpoint, Dick Armey asserts that government antipoverty programs actually create greater material poverty. Armey, a Republican congressman from Texas, claims that an increase in welfare benefits leads to a decrease in the earned income of the recipients. In addition, he maintains, children of welfare recipients are more likely than other children to need welfare as adults, further indicating the failure of the welfare system. For those reasons, Armey argues, welfare reform is necessary. In 1996, two years after the publication of this viewpoint, Congress passed a welfare reform bill that set lifetime limits on benefits and restricted benefits for immigrants, teenage parents, and childless adults.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Armey, how does welfare penalize marriage?
2. What percentage of the children born in 1980 will live on welfare, in the author's view...