If not for all the welfare programs, the feral population would be small enough to be marginal and the entitlement mentality would not exist. We have created the feral population since LBJ’s Great Society. The question is how to undo the damage, and that would take generations to accomplish.
There is, of course, absolutely no willingness on the left to even consider such reforms, as the left views a huge dependent population as a secure voting base and the core constituency for socialism.
But it could be done. I’ll just note that the feral population consists overwhelmingly of single mothers and those of their children who moved to the streets. (This is now supplemented by state-supported and protected drug addiction.) But most of the gangbangers, baby mommas, hopeless addicts, etc. have siblings, uncles, aunts, and grandparents who are living competent lives. It’s not impossible. The incentive structures need to be changed to reduce the casualty rate. Most smaller cities and towns don’t tolerate the level of disorder that we now see in democrat cesspools run by a degenerate, corrupt, one-party clique. Even the worst urban neighborhoods are full of people who are sick of it; they just need to stop voting for the crooks who sell them out.
Republicans have always supported and funded every welfare program.