The federal welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families delivers cash aid to about 2.5 million people, or less than 1 percent of the U.S. population — “far smaller than the share of those aided by food stamps, or by other government support like disability benefits, unemployment insurance, college grants and medical benefits,” writes Emily Badger at The New York Times’ The Upshot.
But while the welfare program has shrunk, its retains a much larger place in the public imagination and in American politics.
Read Badger’s piece for a breakdown of American attitudes toward “welfare” and a detailed look at a fascinating paradox: “Americans have increasingly come to dislike government, even as they have relied more on various forms of government assistance.”
