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Some states’ limits on welfare leaving poor people adrift

Programs offered little help when jobs disappeared

By Jason DeParle

 |  New York Times  

  April 08, 2012

Perhaps no law in the past generation has drawn more praise than the drive to “end welfare as we know it,’’ which joined the late-’90s economic boom to send caseloads plunging, employment rates rising and officials of both parties hailing the virtues of tough love. But the distress of the last four years has added a cautionary postscript: much as overlooked critics of the restrictions once warned, a program that built its reputation when times were good offered little help when jobs disappeared.

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