Probably the best example is the TANF welfare reform passed in 1996.
On the surface it had a very reasonable goal. Require workers on welfare to seek employment.
However, this, combined with the shipping of jobs to China (stuff that had been manufactured in the US was instead manufactured there and shipped back), businesses forcing citizens to compete with immigrants who they knew they could threaten with deportation, along with outright cuts to welfare, kind of destroyed the program.
In other words, welfare was cut while jobs were getting scarcer, and then they turned around and made getting a job a requirement to having / staying on welfare.
On the surface it had a very reasonable goal. Require workers on welfare to seek employment.
However, this, combined with the shipping of jobs to China (stuff that had been manufactured in the US was instead manufactured there and shipped back), businesses forcing citizens to compete with immigrants who they knew they could threaten with deportation, along with outright cuts to welfare, kind of destroyed the program.
In other words, welfare was cut while jobs were getting scarcer, and then they turned around and made getting a job a requirement to having / staying on welfare.