The American Civil Rights Union, Protecting the civil rights of all Americans

The Policy Board • The Board of Directors and Officers

About Robert Carleson

The Washington Times - Robert Carleson, the quiet giant

Investor's Business Daily - Revolutionary Hero

The Free Congress Commentary - The Late Robert B. Carleson - A Free Congress Senior Fellow Of Lasting Achievement

No one who studies the rise of modern conservatism in the latter half of the 20th century could deny the importance of Robert B. Carleson. His tireless campaign to reform welfare stands not only as one of conservatism's first tests, but also one of its first and everlasting successes. Yet his death Friday at the age of 75 has received scant public attention. This is unfortunate. As many have remarked, without a Bob Carleson there might not have been a President Ronald Reagan.

In 1970, when Mr. Reagan was entering his second term as governor of California, he turned his attention to welfare reform. The previous decade had seen a depressing and budget-busting addition of 1.6 million people to the relief rolls. The system was costing the state $2.5 billion a year, which at the time was the highest welfare spending in the country. Facing a Democratic legislature, Mr. Reagan's promises of reform did not look good. The larger question was whether anything could be done.

To answer that question, Mr. Reagan looked to Mr. Carleson, whom he appointed director of the welfare department. After a year of studying the crisis, Mr. Carleson handed the governor a plan that would restrict eligibility, clamp down on corruption and increase work incentives. Predictably, his proposals were widely opposed by Democrats, not to mention the Nixon White House, which was working on a nationalized welfare bill based on the same failed liberal policies. Undeterred, Mr. Reagan pushed ahead with the Carleson plan and on Aug. 13, 1971, the Welfare Reform Act became law.

The results were irrefutable. A year after enactment, total welfare spending dropped for the first time, despite an increase in spending on the neediest families. Where once the welfare rolls had been increasing by nearly 40,000 people per month, by the end of the decade there were 300,000 fewer people than in 1971.

Mr. Reagan's success forced the White House to backtrack on its nationalized plan, and the governor was invited to Washington to explain how he did it. His political star rose precipitously, thanks in no small part to Mr. Carleson. Campaigning for the presidency, Mr. Reagan would trumpet welfare reform as his single greatest domestic policy achievement.

In 1973, Mr. Carleson was appointed U.S. Commissioner of Welfare, where he oversaw the first decline in the national welfare rolls since World War II. After a stint in the Reagan White House, Mr. Carleson returned to the private sector, occasionally acting as a consultant for the Justice Department. He was brought back to Washington after the Republican Revolution of 1994 to assist the leadership in enacting federal welfare reform. His plan -- to replace the open-ended entitlement program Aid to Families with Dependent Children with finite block grants to states -- was twice vetoed by President Clinton. It was finally signed into law in 1996 and to this day remains an unrivaled accomplishment of the conservative movement.

In his final years as a senior fellow at the Free Congress Foundation and CEO of the American Civil Rights Union, Mr. Carleson championed such conservative causes as property rights and gun ownership. He was particularly attached to the cause of defending the Boy Scouts against the American Civil Liberties Union. The lack of appreciation in the media likely reflects Mr. Carleson's unassuming nature, as he was a man who never sought the spotlight. But even the humble may cast large shadows, and few larger than Robert Carleson's.

Leadership: This year marks the 10th anniversary of welfare reform, one of the conservative movement's top domestic achievements. The indispensable man was Robert B. Carleson, who died last week in Washington.

Actual reform of the New Deal centerpiece took years of academic research, most of it verifying the conservative insight that welfare increased dependency while it decreased moral autonomy. Carleson, a thoughtful public servant, didn't need the academics to teach him human nature.

Over the past decade welfare rolls nationwide plummeted, even in liberal New York City. The U.S. economy experienced its most vibrant years as millions of citizens ended their dependency on the state. No coincidence.

The political historians, going back a third of a century, will find Carleson at the center of welfare reform. As Ronald Reagan entered his second term as California's governor with an unspectacular record, he turned his attention to the state's hemorrhaging welfare spending.

Golden State taxpayers were spending $2.1 billion on welfare, the nation's biggest commitment. Reagan turned to Carleson to do something. Carleson's task force proposed cutting a multiplicity of automatic payouts.

Reagan's problem: a Democrat-controlled legislature with a welfarist constituency. Carleson quietly found attractive ways for the Democratic leadership to cooperate. The Welfare Reform Act of 1971 passed, starting a reversal that saw 300,000 fewer welfare clients by decade's end.

When state finance director Casper Weinberger joined the Nixon administration as secretary of health, education and welfare, he picked Carleson to serve as the nation's welfare commissioner. Carleson pitched the California model to the other 49 states. He even derailed a Democrat-inspired Nixon plan to enlarge the welfare state.

Later, in the Reagan White House, he found more ways to curb welfare spending. But his grandest accomplishment awaited the GOP congressional victory in 1994. Carleson promoted his idea of fully scrapping the New Deal program, replacing it with block grants to the states, where legislators would slash entitlements.

Now the delicious part: Bill Clinton vetoed the plan twice. Republican Bob Dole wanted to leave it that way in order to beat Clinton over the head in the 1996 presidential race. But Carleson pushed congressional leaders to try a third time, calculating that Clinton this time would sign to deprive Dole of the issue.

Carleson, putting principle above partisanship, proved even cleverer than the ever-crafty Clinton. Naturally Reagan was drawn to a man who could teach party pragmatists how to get things done.

Today Reagan's attorney general Edwin Meese will eulogize Carleson in the rotunda of the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington. Gathered Reagan alumni will remember this above all: Without California welfare reform 35 years ago, Reagan almost certainly would not have been a presidential contender.

An unheralded poverty warrior has passed away. Robert B. Carleson did more to shape welfare policy in this country over the past three decades but news of his death did not draw long, detailed obituaries in most major newspapers. Welfare "rights" organizations will not pay homage to this man whose work helped start many onetime welfare recipients on the path to self-sufficiency. It is not Politically Correct to identify conservatives who advocate work to be compassionate but millions of Americans owe Carleson a debt of gratitude for spearheading consistently the concept of workfare.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated: "Welfare is a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit." Time proved him correct, particularly as welfare programs had more liberal requirements. Generations of families had lost their sense of the work ethic, expecting a government check rather than payment from an employer. The perverse incentives of the welfare system were noted by Don Taylor, then Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, in a November/December 1996 POLICY REVIEW article, "Welfare Reform: Can the States Fly Solo?"

"The 'war on children' began when the federal government rewarded nonwork and nonmarriage. While perhaps well meaning, those who advocate raising family income artificially through welfare have made the state a competitor with the father and mother as the key providers for the family. In Mississippi, the value of welfare benefits to unwed mothers now exceeds the income of 17 to 30 percent of all single men."

It is a useful time to review the career of Bob Carleson. Recently the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Family Assistance released statistics for FY 2004, assessing the progress made by States as to working welfare recipients. The results should be disheartening for voters in a number of States. The target work rate for "all families" on welfare, established in the reauthorization of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, is 50%. In Pennsylvania, only 7.1% of recipients from "all families' were working in FY 2004. West Virginia (11.7%) did little better. Arizona (25.5%), Arkansas (27.3%), California (23.1%), Connecticut (24.3%), Delaware (22.1%), the District of Columbia (18.2%), Georgia (24.8%), Maryland (16.0%), Michigan (24.5%), Minnesota (26.8%), Mississippi (21.0%), Missouri (19.5%), North Dakota (25.3%), Rhode Island (23.7%), Utah (26.2%) and Vermont (24.9%) are laggards.

Carleson would not be pleased. He had said long ago: "Anyone who is capable of working should expect to earn [his] own welfare benefit." Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, selected Carleson, the Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Public Works, to rein in California's soaring welfare costs. Carleson, leading a task force, devised a plan and negotiated with the leaders of the Democratic California Legislature. The plan actually increased benefits to those recipients, usually disabled, who truly needed help. Incentives to work and a crackdown on fraud were included in the plan. LOS ANGELES TIMES reporter Jack Smith wrote an article, "Workfare: Has It Helped People Get Off The Dole?" published on Christmas Day, 1972, in which one divorced mother of three said of her new "workfare" job; "This is quite an opportunity." Smith wrote that California's Community Work Experience Program represented an important component of the State's 1971 Welfare Reform Act, requiring 80 hours of public service work a month from able-bodied adults receiving AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependant Children) payments. Carleson is quoted: "There are all sorts of worthwhile things a welfare mother can do to help her community and increase her own sense of self-worth."

Many Californians were critical of the plan, even going so far as to call it "slavery." The net effect was undoubtedly positive inasmuch as Carleson stated in November 1972 that the reduction in the welfare caseload allowed California to avoid increased taxation. By then the State of California had prevailed in 14 of 15 court challenges to the Welfare Reform Act, a sign of how vigorous the resistance was to real reform. "No one knows how much fat, fraud and abuse there is in the welfare system, but every time the state tightens its procedures, the welfare load goes down," Carleson explained. California's case load was predicted to continue rising but Carleson said the rolls experienced a reduction in 236,000 cases. Carleson later told Reagan advisor Martin Anderson that, contrary to accusations, people were not "cut" from the welfare rolls but by applying the law more stringently undeserving welfare applicants came to understand that welfare benefits would not be freely available.

Carleson served Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford as Commissioner of Welfare, advised Reagan in his 1976 and 1980 Presidential campaigns, directed the transition at HHS after the victory over President Jimmy Carter and became a Special Assistant to the President for Policy Development in the Reagan Administration. He succeeded in helping to assure that the 1981 Budget Reconciliation Act incorporated workfare requirements.

Carleson's most important contribution to welfare reform came in 1995-1996, when Congress was considering welfare reform. As Senior Fellow at the Free Congress Foundation, Carleson was an adamant advocate of granting the States flexibility to design and manage their own programs. This placed him at odds with other leading conservative advocates for welfare reform, who wanted strings attached.

Carleson countered in an analysis, WELFARE REFORM: SHOULD THERE BE STRINGS ATTACHED?, published by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA):

"Block grants without strings would allow each state to redesign its current welfare program completely. Current failed programs need to be thoroughly reformed and replaced. Thirty years of experience has proved that Washington has no workable welfare solution."

Thanks in large part to Carleson's persistent prodding, the 1996 welfare reform plan enacted by the Republican-led Congress and signed into law by President William J. Clinton instituted a block grant program, replacing federal matching grants for welfare recipients, a perverse incentive for states to keep their welfare rolls high. Block grants allowed states to keep money even if it lowered welfare rolls. Carleson also pressed for a strong work requirement. Doug Bandow, writing in tribute to the deceased Carleson on Citizen Outreach's webpage, called the 1996 act Carleson's "greatest moment."

The 1996 Act was renewed earlier this year. The workfare requirement needed to be strengthened because too many States had ceased pushing welfare recipients to work as the rolls declined. Fifty percent of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients are supposed to be holding jobs by October 1st of this year or face slashing of Federal funds. Pennsylvania, for one, must rush to catch up. The blasÃ© attitude by Pennsylvania officials toward the work requirement is reflected in a comment about the 50% work requirement by Kathy Yorkievitz, Deputy Secretary for Income Maintenance at the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. "It's a pretty stringent way of measuring. We've been doing a lot of analysis and work to figure out how to get there," Yorkievitz told the WILKES BARRE TIMES LEADER. ("Racing Toward Welfare Deadline" by Jennifer Learn-Andes; May 4, 2006 posting.) Yorkievitz added a perfunctory comment that Pennsylvania was making "strong and steady progress." Yet neighboring New York (37.8%), Ohio (65.2%) and New Jersey (34.6%) evidently retained an emphasis on work, according to the FY 2004 statistics on TANF work participation rates for "all families."

That brings us to today. Does the failure of Governors such as Edward Rendell, of Pennsylvania. and Arnold Schwarzenegger, of California, and the State Legislatures to instill tough workfare requirements indicate Carleson failed? Absolutely not. Carleson wrote in the NCPA study:

"Block grants with minimal restrictions would allow states to allocate available funds to the most urgent and productive uses. Moreover, governors and state legislatures would no longer be able to hide behind federal mandates. If they did not adopt the most effective and least costly reforms discovered by other states, they would be voted out of office."

HHS Office of Family Assistance statistics demonstrate which States have moved decisively to enforce strict workfare requirements and which have failed. This is an election year. Voters in States with fewer welfare recipients working should be asking tough questions. While Governors and numerous State Legislatures have succeeded in putting welfare recipients to work, other leaders evidently appeared not to care about their responsibility to the taxpayers and to help welfare recipients start climbing the economic ladder.

There could be no greater tribute to the legacy of Robert B. Carleson than further achievement in gaining paying jobs for welfare recipients. Free Congress Foundation was honored that Bob Carleson for many years was an FCF Senior Fellow.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.

Robert B. Carleson, a native of Long Beach, California, in 1949 received naval scholarships to University of Utah and University of Southern California (USC). In 1953 he received his degree in public administration from USC and a commission in the U. S. Navy. From 1953-56 he served in the Far East and Korea, including two years with the First Marine Division in Korea, Camp Pendleton in California and a one year tour on the heavy cruiser U. S. S. Bremerton, which included combat in Korea. After his naval service, he did post graduate work in public administration at the University of Southern California and was an administrative intern the Beverly Hills City Administrator's office.

He served as Administrative Assistant to the Director of Public Works for the City of Beverly Hills from 1956-57. After working as City Clerk and Assistant to the City Manager of Claremont, California from 1957-58, and as Senior Administrative Assistant to the City Manager of Torrance, California from 1959-60, he was City Manager of San Dimas, California from 1960-64, and City Manager of Pico Rivera, California from 1964-68.

Carleson joined the administration of Governor Ronald Reagan as Chief Deputy Director of the California State Department of Public Works (now the Department of Transportation) in 1968.

Carleson first received notice in welfare policy as the chief architect of Governor Reagan's successful welfare reform program, and its principal implementer as Director of the California State Department of Social Welfare in 1971-72. As a result of the success of California's reforms, he was brought to Washington, D.C. by Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Casper Weinberger to be U. S. Commissioner of Welfare from 1973-75 with instructions to carry California-style welfare reforms to governors and state legislators. During his tenure in Washington, the national welfare rolls dropped for the first time since World War II as they had done in California during his tenure there.

Carleson then founded his own management and public policy consulting firm, Robert B. Carleson and Associates, in 1975, with offices in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Among his public sector clients were the States of New Hampshire and South Carolina, Governor-elect King of Massachusetts, the California counties of Alameda, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Barbara, and the U.S. Senate Steering Committee.

He served as an unpaid advisor on welfare matters to Chairman Russell B. Long of the U. S. Senate Finance Committee from 1972 until Long's retirement. During the Carter Administration he advised Chairman Long and members of the Business Roundtable in national welfare policy matters. In this regard, his private sector clients included AT&T, General Electric Corporation, U.S. Steel, Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank, Prudential Life Insurance Company, Metropolitan Life Assurance Company, Exxon Corporation, Chevron USA, Fluor Corporation and Winn-Dixie Stores.

He was a Policy Advisor to the 1976 Reagan presidential campaign and was a Senior Policy Advisor to the Reagan for President and the Reagan/Bush campaigns in 1980. He served as the Chairman of the Reagan/Bush Welfare Reform Task Force in 1980. He headed President-elect Reagan's Transition Team at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and was a Special Advisor for Health and Welfare Policy in the Office of Policy Coordination during the1980-81 Presidential Transition.

Carleson joined the White House staff as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Development after the 1981 inauguration. In that role he served as a special advisor for Federalism policy and was the Executive Secretary of the Cabinet Council on Human Resources. He was the author of the 1981 Reagan Welfare Reforms contained in the 1981 Budget Reconciliation Act, which had been submitted by Carleson and approved by the President-Elect during the transition.
In April 1984, Carleson joined the international accounting and management consulting firm of KMG Main Hurdman as Principal and Director of Government Relations, where he pioneered the firm's government relations practice. His principal client was Mercedes Benz of North America. Although not an accountant, he served on a policy committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. After its merger with Peat Marwick, he left KMG to reactivate Robert B. Carleson and Associates in the Washington, D. C. area. His principal client was the UNISYS Corporation.

Carleson was a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta from March 1987 until his term expired at the end of 1990. He served as an intermittent consultant to the U. S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs in 1991 and 1992.

In December 1991, he was elected to the Board of Directors of Innovative Environmental Services, Ltd. of Vancouver B.C., Canada. At its annual shareholders meeting in 1992, he was elected President of the corporation to serve on a part-time interim basis until a permanent full-time President could be brought in. This was achieved in 1993. He continued to serve on the board of I.E.S. Ltd. until August 1994. His other interests precluded his spending the time necessary for board functions.

Beginning January 1994, he served part-time as a Senior Fellow at the Free Congress Foundation for Research and Education. After President Clinton once again made welfare reform a national issue, Carleson decided to present his long held proposal for replacing the open-ended 61 year-old welfare entitlement program (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) with finite block grants to the states. Welfare reform legislation containing his proposal was twice vetoed but on the third try was signed into law by President Clinton in August 1996. Today, the legislation stands as one of the most significant welfare reforms since 1935.

In 1998, Carleson founded the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) to serve as a "constructive alternative" to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). His goal was to provide a vehicle to protect the civil rights of all Americans - rights that continue to be undermined by the left-wing and anti-family agenda of organizations like the ACLU.

Carleson is listed in Marquis Who's Who in America and in Marquis Who's Who in the World.

His articles have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Readers' Digest, the Washington Times, and in various other publications, for one of which he received a Freedoms Foundation award.