Welfare no fair

Last week, President Clinton declared that he would help the country build a bridge to the future. "I still believe in a place called Hope," Clinton said in his speech. After signing the Welfare Reform Bill, it's obvious he means hope for those who can manufacture it themselves.

The Republican-authored bill cuts off aid to recipients after two years, and does not consider out-of-wedlock children for additional aid. It also gives states the power to decide who should get aid and how much.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the federal government's "war on poverty." Now that term is simply a catch phrase. This election year, the phrase has been modified to read something like "crack the whip on welfare recipients."

The problem with the bill that Clinton signed Aug. 22, is that it doesn't really offer viable solutions to those trapped in the culture of poverty. Cracking the whip does not give people job skills, teach self-reliance, self-confidence or independence. Instead it "fixes" the welfare system much the same way taking benches out of parks "fixes" homelessness. In the short term, it may appear better, but it doesn't change anything, and in fact makes things worse.

The system isn't working now. Overburdened and misused, the system does need an overhaul. Since aid began in 1965, more than $5.4 trillion has been spent on various forms of assistance. But cutting blindly isn't the answer. The bill mentions job training programs for thepoor, and that's a good step. But this again seems like a catch phrase, thrown in to make it sound good, but with out any real substance. Far too little money will be spent on actual job training programs.

The bill also gives the states power to decide how much aid recipients get, and the option to deny assistance to non-citizens. This could send states in a "race to the bottom," out of fear of the migration of those on welfare. Aid to the poor may become the domain of churches and charities.

Clinton obviously sees the weaknesses in the bill he signed. At the Democratic NationalConvention, he tried to strengthen the lack of job training by challenging business owners to hire people on welfare. He even backs the idea up with an tax-cut incentive to the business who do so.

But how will business owners be able to hire people who have no job training? It may sound like a grand idea amid all the balloons and confetti of the convention, but to welfare recipients it'snothing more then an empty promise. Many of their futures were sealed when he signed thewelfare bill a week ago.

[ Golden Gater Online September 5, 1996 ]

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