The number of enrollees in Wisconsin’s W-2 program is lagging behind in-kind forms of aid. Specifically, 14,000 recipients of food stamps with dependent children claiming no income do not claim W-2 benefits. The government’s response is to retrain bureaucrats to better inform the poor of their benefits and push welfare. My question is why?

Wisconsin under Tommy Thompson led the way in welfare reform. Much of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and state initiatives to decrease the welfare budget burden were inspired by Tommy Thompson’s fiscal conservatism. If people don’t find it necessary to be on welfare, why are government bureaucrats lamenting? With TANF being means tested as well as merely transitional support (unlike AFDC), isn’t a drop in welfare enrollment especially in this economic recession a sign of welfare policy success in the state.

Since Wisconsin has one of the largest budget deficits in the country and is already being fiscally strained by other social insurance program expenditures such as Senior Care and Badger Care, shouldn’t the government be elated by the prospect of paying out less money in welfare checks? Wisconsin’s W-2 program is successfully paving the way towards ending the cycle of dependence, yet the Wisconsin government, which is almost to the point of bankruptcy, is upset that more people are not on welfare. It just doesn’t make sense.

Maybe if Wisconsinites demand their government to return to former Governor Tommy Thompson’s fiscally conservative ways, common sense could prevail, and the government might realize that decreased expenditures on Welfare, and perhaps other gratuitous expenses, could be the financial life preserver our failing government needs.