Michigan governor John Engler is pursuing changes in welfare policy that are pleasing the Clinton administration more than his Republican allies on Capitol Hill. The Democrats' unlikely and somewhat unwilling hero announced an ambitious pilot project . . . that seeks to cut welfare costs by providing generous social services so that poor people can go to work. Democrats call his plan enlightened. Republicans have been caught off guard. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, . . . praised Mr. Engler for breaking with congressional Republicans by using child care and transportation subsidies and fashioning a more active role for social workers in an effort to turn welfare recipients into workers.
-The New York Times, January 22, 1996
What does the article show about American politics?