The article revisits the 1996 revision of “welfare policy” in the United States. Often public policy is written and publicized in glowing terms that describe the wonderful changes we will see in the future. Unfortunately we often uncritically believe projected accomplishments of policy changes to be actual accomplishments. This article documents the gap between reality and publicity. It focuses on the demonization of single mothers and the justification of reduced societal responsibility for those living in poverty and outlines how we might re-envision policy that would be reality based.