Bill Clinton: Radio Address on the Welfare Reform Act

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Compare Clinton's Radio Address on the Welfare Reform Act with Ronald Reagan's radio address of February 15, 1986, also on welfare reform. How is Reagan's address different from Clinton's? How much of this difference can be attributed to audience or context and how much to each man's disparate visions for reform?
• 2. How do most Americans form their opinions about welfare recipients? What exposure do they have to people on public assistance? Think in terms of different types of media (news programs, television series, movies, and political campaigns). How might public attitudes, correct or incorrect, shape public policy?
• 3. Historically, most recipients of TANF and AFDC have been women. How does welfare reform (the PRWORA) reflect changing gender expectations of single mothers or widows from the 1930s to the 1990s? How does the legislation reflect similar assumptions regarding the role of women in society today and during the Depression?
• 4. What would Franklin Roosevelt think about Clinton's radio address? What would he think about the changes made to welfare itself, including the expansion of the system in the 1960s?