Looking back at Ronnie Reagan

If he'd held on a little longer, Ronald Reagan would've been 100 years old this month. The anniversary of his birth has been treated with more reverence than the anniversary of Jesus Christ's birth by Republicans kneeling in reverence before his shrine.

I was in mid-career during RWR's eight years in the White House, and the anti-welfare policies, rhetoric and "welfare Cadillac" mythology of the Reagan administration made my life measurably more difficult. The welfare reform policies of the time were known as monthly reporting and retrospective budgeting, and were apparently designed to drive the working poor off benefit programs like food stamps. Instead of traditional prospective budgeting, in which future benefits were based on anticipated income, the Reagan policies mandated retrospective budgets in which NEXT month's benefits were based on LAST month's actual income. Clients with earnings were required to provide written reports and documentary proof of all income every month. For example, all income received in January had to be reported and verified by early February. During February, agency caseworkers would re-budget the case and authorize benefits for March based on January's actual income. If John Doe had an income increase due to overtime in January, his March benefits were reduced even though his income was less due to fewer hours.

Republicans claimed the new system would eliminate fraud and ensure benefits that were accurate to the penny. In reality, every state had to design and implement a massive technological change to generate the monthly reporting forms and commit substantial manpower to processing the forms and adjusting benefits month-to-month. It was a classic example of Republican government, in which spending a thousand dollars to save ten dollars was considered cost-effective if it resulted in punishing poor people and state employee bureaucrats. Virtually every state protested the boondoggle and requested waivers with no luck.

In 1989, Bush 41 replaced Reagan in the White House. To its credit, the Bush administration promptly scrapped monthly reporting and retrospective budgeting, and my life improved as a result. Still, eight years of Reagan's fantasies about welfare queens driving Cadillacs to the food stamp office created a hostile anti-welfare mood among Texas taxpayers that helped George W. Bush become governor a few years later, leading to the privatization boondoggle.