THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 12, 1996 TAG: 9608090014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 51 lines
Columnist Bob Herbert's ``Welfare: Out of the mouths of babes'' (Perspectives, July 25) has proved my point, which is: Politicians do not understand the very thing that they - not our poor families - first created for poor children and now are dismantling.
If they did, they would not say stupid things like the current welfare reform/-deform plans will throw zillions of welfare children into poverty. Our welfare children are already drowning in poverty.
We're not talking about vague substandard living conditions. We are talking about federal definition: a family of four earning less than $14,500 is considered poor. Yet, for most welfare children, being in a household of $14,500 would be rich.
In Virginia, a welfare mom with three children survives on $4,164 in annual Aid to Families with Dependent Children, about 66 percent less than the federal poverty standard.
If we move a step up to full-time working moms earning $5 an hour, they still fall $4,000 behind the federal poverty standard. And that's before taxes.
Giving governors blank checks called ``block grants'' will ensure that tax money is spent in the name of the poor but will not ensure that our poor children ever get any help. In the end, poor children will fall into the laps of the local religious/charity/civic groups - taxpayers who have already paid for the federal blank checks to the states. We'll be paying two and three times again to get any shred of humanitarian aid to our own children.
What's the answer to meaningful welfare reform? Jobs with living wages. Instead of dumping custodial parents into the job market with no safety net, keep their welfare benefits intact until these new breadwinners (and taxpayers) are earning a living wage.
Welfare in Virginia is 25 percent of what it costs to live. Allow the mom to keep this benefit while she struggles to earn 75 percent of the cost to live. When she earns 80 percent, shave off 5 percent of her government benefit. When she earns 85 percent, shave off 10 percent, etc., until she's back in the mainstream economy.
Will this work and how do we know? Because we are many welfare mothers; we know there is only one group of people who hate the welfare system more than the politicians and the taxpayers do. Yes, welfare mothers. This ``25/75 Plan'' will work for us and the taxpayers.
Until then, our poorest children, once again, will pay the price in human suffering, and the local community will be forced to pay the latest welfare-reform bills - three times over.
BRENDA McCORMICK
Executive director
Mothers Inc.
Virginia Beach, July 25, 1996 by CNB