made it clear that such attitudes do not reflect the priorities of the general public. Whatever faults they might perceive in social programs, Americans do not want to see them dismantled. Although many are concerned about the dependency of the poor, people at all levels have benefited from some government-supported social protections like Social Security, Medicare, and mortgage interest deductions. And it has remained clear that private charity and voluntarism, as important as they are, cannot fully meet the social needs of our citizens. Government participation is essential; we must learn from past experience how governments can respond more efficiently to the nation's social welfare needs.

Some lessons of that experience are obvious: Americans ought not to have to choose between the public and private sectors as avenues for dealing with problems of social welfare. Both are intimately linked; they should complement and support each other. Nor can we rely on economic growth alone to guarantee social welfare. A healthy economy, while essential, will not of itself generate the human investments and mutual caring that are necessary for a strong, just society. And while America has grown properly skeptical of programs that foster dependency, it has also learned that it is futile to ask people to take greater personal responsibility for their lives unless they have a real chance to escape from material conditions that foster insecurity and despair.

Years of experiment, success, and failure have also yielded a wealth of practical knowledge. We know, for example, what must be done to bring healthy babies into the world. We know that high-quality programs for preschool children pay dividends in later years. We know how to combine health, education, and family support services to help disadvantaged schoolchildren. We know that employment programs, though no panacea, can offer cost-effective improvements in the lives of many, including mothers on welfare.