In a compelling July 4th column at the Wall Street Journal, Peter Cove argues for wholesale welfare reform.

Cove laments the returns on investment that characterize current federal anti-poverty programs. Put simply, those programs are very expensive but achieve very little. And he notes the plummeting labor participation rate for prime-age Americans, “The unemployment rate is at a 15-year low, but only 55% of Americans adults 18 to 64 have full-time jobs.”