The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 had been regarded, as Mr. Buckley reminds us,

"as the principal achievement of Mr. Gingrich's Contract with America," and the

Democrats had been looking for a chance to undo it. According to some observers they

got that chance in the just-passed budget bill. A major provision of the reform act had

been workfare--along lines pioneered by Governor Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin--

which Mr. Solarz accurately describes as "a useful vehicle for encouraging people to

acquire the skills that enable them to go into the private sector." The budget bill

contained a provision mandating the minimum wage for workfare, which, Mr. Rector

argues, would put it on an entirely different basis. SS: "My sense is that there is a

sufficient national consensus in favor of welfare reform in general and workfare in

particular, so that if ... these dire prognostications turn out to be accurate, the Congress

will undoubtedly enact legislation making possible a restoration of the workfare

program." RR: "They did. They just did. And Clinton promised to veto it."