COLUMN: "Finest Work Song"

From Mike Farber's "I Want My MTV," Fall '92 Now what? As you may have heard, Clinton was a good politician and made lots of promises to lots of people. One of his pledges was welfare reform. You've seen the commercial. Clinton, in jacket and tie, leaning on his desk. He peers into the camera with that earnest puppy-dog look. He speaks. "For so long, government has failed us, and one of its worst failures has been welfare. I have a plan to end welfare as we know it -- to break the cycle of welfare dependency. "We'll provide education, job training and child care, then those who are able must go to work, either in the private sector or in public service. "I know it can work. In my state we've moved 17,000 people from welfare rolls to payrolls. It's time to make welfare what it should be -- a second chance, not a way of life." Sounds appealing, doesn't it? Clinton did such a good job selling this plan that in 1988, when he was the failed governor of a small state, the United States Congress adopted some of it. And President Reagan signed it. This piece of legislation, the Family Support Act, was supported by conservatives and liberals alike. The legislative intent was to promote the principle of mutual obligation: society would help the poor, but the poor had to strive for independence. The goals of the Family Support Act were for the states to push 20 percent of recipients into education or job training, with many recipients -- such as women with children under age three -- excluded. The law also required states to guarantee child care to working women, and it strengthened enforcement of child support from absent parents. So what happened to the Family Support Act? Two things. George "What's domestic policy?" Bush was elected and the economy started its downward turn. The Family Support Act also forces states to put up part of the money, and the states are broke. In 1991, states used only $600 million of the $1 billion in federal money available to them for education and training, because so many did not appropriate the required matching money. So far, the results from the Family Support Act are encouraging. In California, single parents entering the education and job training program earned an average of $1,902 a year, compared with $1,631 for a similar group that did not receive the services. Clinton is acutely aware of the mixed signals a welfare reform proposal could send, considering the subject frequently carries racial overtones. When he made the formal announcement of his proposal, he made it in the South, surrounded by a racially-mixed group of mothers and their babies. Clinton emphasized that the people receiving welfare are also the ones most determined to reform the current system. He said, "The people on welfare are the people who dislike it most of all. Those people on welfare are dying for another alternative, willing to seize it, and they'd like to end the welfare system as we know it." Clinton's welfare reform plan greatly expands the Family Support Act. His first step under the new plan will be to spend the allotted money on the current Family Support Act. In addition, he will: · Limit federal welfare payments to two years. At the end of two years, or the end of recipient's training program, the person would be required to work. If no job was immediately available, the person would be required to perform community service in order to receive benefits. · Increase the amount welfare recipients are allowed to save without losing their benefits, from $1,000 to $10,000. · Index the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation. · Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to guarantee that no family with a working parent lives below the poverty line. · Create a national database to track those who avoid paying child support. Opposition to Clinton's plan comes from old-style liberals, unions and spendthrifts. A fishing adage helps explain the old-style liberals opposition. As the adage has it, there are two ways to help needy people: give them a fish -- or money, under the old-style plan -- or teach them to fish -- through job training and education, under Clinton's plan. Union opposition is based on the fear that "community service" will entail jobs already performed by union members. And spendthrifts are nervous because of the enormous start-up costs -- $6 billion a year for four years. These reservations, while legitimate, are secondary to the state of the current welfare system. The welfare system is sick. Under President Bush's domestic policies, the number of recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) increased five times more than it had in the 12 preceding years combined. This burden on the system cannot continue. The only answer is reform. Clinton's plan offers a "tough-love" approach that provides opportunity for those that have been closed out of the American dream. Systemic overhaul is a daunting endeavor, but it must be done. Michael Farber is a third-year Law student from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "I Want My MTV" appears alternate Tuesdays.

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