| Year | Pres. | House | Senate | Democrats | Republicans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | R | R | R | ||
| 1904 | R | R | R | ||
| 1908 | R | R | R | ||
| 1912 | R | D | R | ||
| 1916 | D | D | D | ||
| 1920 | D | R | R | ||
| 1924 | R | R | R | ||
| 1928 | R | R | R | ||
| 1932 | R | R | R | ||
| 1936 | D | D | D | ||
| 1940 | D | D | D | ||
| 1944 | D | D | D | ||
| 1948 | D | R | R | ||
| 1952 | D | D | D | ||
| 1956 | R | D | D | We pledge ourselves to work toward the reduction and elimination of poverty in America | |
| 1960 | R | D | D | ||
| 1964 | D | D | D | Carry the War on Poverty forward as a total war against the causes of human want. | This Administration has refused to take practical free enterprise measures to help the poor. . . to continue Republican sponsorship of practical Federal-State- local programs which will effectively treat the needs of the poor, while resisting, direct Federal handouts that erode away individual self-reliance and self- respect and perpetuate dependency |
| 1968 | D | D | D | The new federal-state program we propose should provide for financial incentives and needed services to enable and encourage adults on welfare to seek employment to the extent they are able to do so. | Welfare and poverty programs will be drastically revised to liberate the poor from the debilitating dependence which erodes self-respect and discourages family unity and responsibility. We will modify the rigid welfare requirements that stifle work motivation and support locally operated children’s day care centers to free the parents to accept work. |
| 1972 | R | D | D | The last is not least, but it is last for good reason. The present welfare system has failed because it has been required to make up for too many other failures. Millions of Americans are forced into public assistance because public policy too often creates no other choice. . . The next Democratic Administration must end the present welfare system and replace it with an income security program which places cash assistance in an appropriate context with all of the measures outlined above, adding up to an earned income approach to ensure each family an income substantially more than the poverty level ensuring standards of decency and health, as officially defined in the area. . . The system of income protection which replaces welfare must he a part of the full employment policy which assures every American a job at a fair wage under conditions which make use of his ability and provide an opportunity for advancement. | The Nation’s welfare system is a mess. It simply must be reformed. . . The present system drains work incentive from the employed poor, as they see welfare families making as much or more on the dole. |
| 1976 | R | D | D | Fundamental welfare reform is necessary. The problems with our current chaotic and inequitable system of public assistance are notorious. Existing welfare programs encourage family instability. They have few meaningful work incentives. They do little or nothing for the working poor on substandard incomes. The patchwork of federal, state and local programs encourages unfair variations in benefit levels among the states, and benefits in many states are well below the standards for even lowest-income budgets. . . Those persons who are physically able to work (other than mothers with dependent children) should be required to accept appropriate available jobs or job training. | The following goals should govern the reform of the welfare system: (1) Provide adequate living standards for the truly needy; (2) End welfare fraud and prevent it in the future with emphasis on removing ineligible recipients from the welfare rolls, tightening food stamp eligibility requirements, and ending aid to illegal aliens and the voluntarily unemployed; (3) Strengthen work requirements, particularly directed at the productive involvement of able-bodied persons in useful community work projects; (4) Provide educational and vocational incentives to allow recipients to become self-supporting; (5) Better coordinate federal efforts with local and state social welfare agencies and strengthen local and state administrative functions. |
| 1980 | D | D | D | We are at a crossroad in the delivery of welfare. Serious reform is necessary if the inequities are to be remedied and administration improved. . . We must require work or necessary training leading to work of every capable person, except for the elderly and those responsible for the care of small children. However, we cannot make this requirement effective unless we can assure employment first through the private sector and, if that is insufficient, through public employment. We must provide an income floor both for the working poor and the poor not in the labor market. | We categorically reject the notion of a guaranteed annual income, no matter how it may be disguised, which would destroy the fiber of our economy and doom the poor to perpetual dependence. |
| 1984 | R | D | R | We have launched real welfare reforms. We have targeted benefits to the needy through tighter eligibility standards, enforced child-support laws, and encouraged “workfare” in the States. We gave States more leeway in managing welfare programs, more assistance with fraud control, and more incentives to hold down costs. . . Because there are different reasons for poverty, our programs address different needs and must never be replaced with a unitary income guarantee. That would betray the interests of the poor and the taxpayers alike. | |
| 1988 | R | D | D | can help people move from welfare to work | Work is an essential component of welfare reform, and education is an essential component of employability. Welfare reform must require participation in education and work, and provide day care assistance and continued access to Medicaid during the transition to full independence. |
| 1992 | R | D | D | Welfare should be a second chance, not a way of life. We want to break the cycle of welfare by adhering to two simple principles: no one who is able to work can stay on welfare forever, and no one who works should live in poverty. We will continue to help those who cannot help themselves. We will offer people on welfare a new social contract. | Today’s welfare system is anti-work and anti- marriage. It taxes families to subsidize illegitimacy. It rewards unethical behavior and penalizes initiative. It cannot be merely tinkered with by Congress; it must be recreated by States and localities. Republican Governors and legislators in several States have already launched dramatic reforms, especially with workfare and leanfare. Welfare can no longer be a check in the mail with no responsibility. |
| 1996 | D | R | R | Now, because of the President’s leadership and with the support of a majority of the Democrats in Congress, national welfare reform is going to make work and responsibility the law of the land. . . But the new welfare plan gives America an historic chance: to break the cycle of dependency for millions of Americans, and give them a real chance for an independent future. It reflects the principles the President has insisted upon since he started the process that led to welfare reform. | Within a few weeks, Bill Clinton will sign into law a Republican reform of welfare. With a straight face, after twice vetoing similar legislation, he will attempt to take credit for what we have accomplished. . . So be it. Our cause is justice for both the taxpayers and for the poor. Our purpose in welfare reform is not to save money but to bring into the mainstream of American life those who now are on the margins of our society and our economy. . . The key to welfare reform is restoring personal responsibility and encouraging two-parent households. The path to that goal lies outside of official Washington. In the hands of State and local officials, and under the eye of local taxpayers, welfare can again become a hand up instead of a handout. All able-bodied adults must be required to work, either in private sector jobs or in community work projects. Illegal aliens must be ineligible for all but emergency benefits. And a firm time limit for receipt of welfare must be enforced. |
| 2000 | R | R | R | With Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the White House, we changed the nation’s welfare system – transforming the program into one that encourages and promotes work. Since 1993, the welfare rolls have fallen to their lowest levels in over 30 years. Today, millions of parents now have the dignity of a paycheck, rather than the stigma of a welfare check. | For many individuals, poverty signals more than the lack of money. It often represents obstacles that cannot be overcome with just a paycheck. These are the challenging cases, where government aid is least effective. These, too, are the situations where neighborhood and faith-based intervention has its greatest power. For this reason, the Republican Congress mandated charitable choice in the welfare reform law of 1996, allowing states to contract with faith-based providers for welfare services on the same basis as any other providers. |
| 2004 | R | R | R | And it means continuing on the path of welfare reform. We must match parents’ responsibility to work with the real opportunity to do so, by making sure parents can get the health care, child care, and transportation they need. | But there is more work to do. We need to build on the results of the 1996 reforms and continue to move welfare recipients into jobs and off the welfare rolls. This is especially important for single women and mothers, who continue to rely on welfare and fear that they cannot find a job or enter a training program because they need to care for their children. |
| 2008 | R | D | D | ||
| 2012 | D | R | D | For the sake of low-income families as well as the taxpayers, the federal government’s entire system of public assistance should be reformed to ensure that it promotes work. | |
| 2016 | D | R | R | This year marks another important anniversary; it has been 20 years since the landmark Republican welfare reform of 1996 broke away from the discredited Great Society model. By making welfare a benefit instead of an entitlement, it put millions of recipients on a transition from dependence to independence. . . We propose instead the dynamic compassion of work requirements in a growing economy, where opportunity takes the place of a hand-out, where true self-esteem can grow from the satisfaction of a job well done. | |
| 2020 | R | D | R | ||
| 2024 | D | R | D |