Since the war on poor quality began in the 1960s, the federal welfare system has grown dramatically. Today, the federal government operates 80 different fund-tested welfare programs; that provide money, food, housing, medical care, and social services to poor and low-income Americans, and the total government welfare is now nearly a trillion a year. Welfare spending continues to increase, but the poverty rate has remained virtually unchanged over the last fifty years. Care fails to address the causes of poor quality, instead continuing to direct more money towards symptoms. Welfare must be changed to promote independence through work. Policy makers should limit growing welfare spending by setting a total cap. The high cost of benefits is not simply a product of the recent recession, and without policy changes, welfare spending will not decline when employment recovers. With President Obama's current finances, American taxpayers will pay more than $12 trillion to support welfare over the next decade. The cost of welfare is unsustainable, ep...