On TheBlaze Wednesday, ”Wilkow!” guests Ben Domenech of the Heartland Institute and Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation joined host Andrew Wilkow to take a hard look at the welfare state–how has it grown under President Obama? How have the programs instituted nearly half a century ago succeeded in pulling Americans out of poverty? How could they be improved?

While the poverty rate has risen to 15.1 percent of Americans, the highest level in nearly a decade, the federal government will spend more than $668 billion on at least 126 different programs to fight poverty in 2012. That figure doesn’t include another $284 billion spent on programs by state and local governments. According to a study done by the Cato Institute, federal welfare spending has increased by 41 percent since President Obama took office, and many Republicans over the last two years have quick to point to the 47 million Americans now on food stamps under this administration.

On Wednesday, Domenech, Wilkow and Rector discussed why these programs have not lowered the poverty rate, and why there has been so much opposition to attempts to reform them. Watch a clip from Wednesday’s show below.