142. The Flawed U.S. Safety Net System & What States Can Do About It w Leslie Ford | Let People Prosper Episode 48

Today, I'm joined by Leslie Ford, adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility.

Hello Friends,

Thank you for listening to the Let People Prosper podcast and for reading the newsletter for show notes and key economic insights.

Today, I'm honored to be joined by Leslie Ford, adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility and a senior fellow with the Alliance for Opportunity.

We discuss:

1) The history of the war on poverty, how safety net programs have evolved, and where the war on poverty stands today;

2) How safety net programs can discourage upward mobility and keep people trapped in poverty through penalties such as those on marriage; and

3) Data on what requirements help safety net recipients achieve long-lasting self-sufficiency and prosperity, and more.

You can watch this interview on YouTube or listen to it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, or Anchor. Please share on social media, subscribe to your favorite platform and my newsletter, like it, and leave a 5-star rating.

• Leslie Ford is an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility. She is also president of Ford Policy Solutions and a member of the State Board of Social Services at the Virginia Department of Social Services.

• Ms. Ford previously served in the White House as a domestic policy adviser and special assistant to the president from 2018 to 2020. During that time, she worked on the development of the Trump administration’s welfare and antipoverty strategic agenda and on reforms to US social safety-net programs. Before joining the White House, Ms. Ford was a legislative adviser to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). While working on Capitol Hill, she oversaw the development of 22 pieces of legislation and more than 50 amendments on significant bills to advance health and welfare reforms. Ms. Ford started her career at the Heritage Foundation.

• Ms. Ford has been published in the Wall Street Journal and National Review. She holds a BA from the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

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