This article examines social welfare spending on the eve of the recession to understand the likely effects of the economic downturn on the funding of state and local social welfare systems. It finds that state and local spending outside of medical assistance lost much of its real fiscal value...

Medicaid and the health care crucible -- Dodging the block grant bullet and other signs of resilience -- Beyond welfare medicine : the take-up challenge -- Government by waiver : the quest to transform long-term care -- Demonstration waivers and the politics of reinvention -- Reform : the...