Final answer:
President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which replaced the AFDC with TANF, setting time limits on benefits and requiring work or job training. It granted states more control over welfare programs, promoted work over dependency, and introduced the Earned Income Credit to support low-income workers.
Step-by-step explanation:
President Clinton's Welfare Reform
President Bill Clinton initiated significant changes to the American welfare system through the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. This legislation replaced the existing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which introduced more stringent requirements for welfare. The reforms included time limits for how long individuals could receive benefits and required recipients to work or attend a job training program, effectively ending the concept of welfare as an open-ended entitlement.
Under TANF, able-bodied adults were subject to a two-year limit for receiving assistance and a cumulative lifetime maximum of five years. States received increased flexibility to administer their welfare programs, and the federal government reduced its monetary support. This shift also saw the implementation of the Earned Income Credit, which provided tax refunds to low-income workers, as a means of encouraging employment over welfare dependency.
The reforms were a part of Clinton's broader strategy to reform welfare and reduce government spending on direct welfare payments, and were influenced by both Democratic and Republican ideas about welfare and the role of the state in assisting the poor.