
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994                    TAG: 9406170036 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A18    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940617                                 LENGTH:

KEEPING WELFARE AS WE KNOW IT: MORE 'BOOB BAIT'

{LEAD} ``Boob bait for the Bubbas'' is how New York Democratic Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan's described Bill Clinton's penchant for raising welfare reform whenever the rest of his agenda appeared to flag. That aptly describes the welfare ``reforms'' the president unveiled this week, because it sure won't ``end welfare as we know it.'' And Bubbas are the least likely to be fooled.

At $5 trillion and climbing, losing the War on Poverty has cost Americans more than winning World War II. More wrenching still has been the human cost, in terms of rising illegitimacy, crime and shattered lives. It is the latter problem, not simply the monetary cost, that most Americans would like to see addressed.

{REST} Premature parenthood is what condemns not only the recipient but her children to welfare. It presents the public with a bill - $305 billion in 1992 - that generally buys more non-work, unwed parenthood and dependency. And that's not counting the bills for violent crime, special education programs and health care, all of which track the rise in illegitimacy.

None of that is the president's focus, however. The president makes five recommendations: First, increasing welfare spending by $9.3 billion over the next five years, most of it in child care for the children of teenage welfare mothers while they prepare for mostly government jobs. Second, requiring that (unless they have another baby) these youngest percent of welfare mothers leave the welfare rolls for work within two years - a requirement that will affect maybe 8 percent of welfare recipients by century's end.

Third, unwed mothers would be required to name the father of their child and live with a responsible adult (whatever that is) in order to receive benefits. Fourth, aggressively pursuing child support, and finally, $400 million for ``teen pregnancy prevention.''

Child care for welfare recipients sends a perverse signal to working women near the poverty line who are doing their best to provide it themselves. The work requirement simply sounds like government make-work that will breed cynicism among recipients and the public alike. And since few fathers of children on welfare have major assets anyway, the president's proposal sounds like a free shot at ``deadbeat dads.''

The best ideas for welfare reform are coming at the state level, such as Virginia's refusal to increase benefits for babies born to mothers on welfare. By further loosening federal regulation, which the president talked about but he will need to follow up on, the states can experiment to find out what works. Welfare must be made less attractive not more, and the means found get people out of dependency and back into the productive economy.

The president had an opportunity to boldly challenge the conventional wisdom in Washington and really be the ``new Democrat'' he claimed he was in the campaign. Unfortunately, be threw it away. With such a timid opening bid, the status-quo lobby in Congress will see this as the unserious electioneering it is. The public, however, are not boobs. And they will likely see it that way as well.

{KEYWORDS} WELFARE REFORM

by CNB