78-01-B5
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Welfare[edit]
Transcript[edit]For some time now we've been told the Carter administration will present a plan for welfare reform this year. While there have been trial balloons sent up as to the direction such reform would take, we've had little in the way of a comprehensive summary. Now thanks to Rep. Charles Thone of Nebraska we have some factual information. I doubt that it will rouse your enthusiasm for the proposed reforms. To begin with I'm convinced, in view of our own experience with welfare reform in California, that a primary goal of reform should be to reduce the welfare rolls. Our caseload was increasing by 40,000 people a month. We reversed that and achieved an 8000 a month reduction in the rolls for more than three years. This doesn't mean we callously threw needy people into the streets nor is this what I'm suggesting at the national level. We found that there were some of what I call "paper people"-- names on the welfare lists of nonexistent people which meant some people were collecting more than one welfare check. Our reforms tightened eligibility procedures but mainly we directed our effort to salvaging human beings and making them self-supporting . The proposals for welfare reform in Washington will do just the opposite -- they will put additional people on the dole, says Congressman Thone. The California reforms save overall welfare cost in this one state alone of some $2 billion. The Washington proposals will increase the annual cost by almost $15 billion -- about $12 billion more than the Carter Administration said it would cost. That estimate is based on the present value of the dollar, but the reform wouldn't go into operation until 1981. With inflation that $15 billion estimate will have to be increased considerably. Even that doesn't tell the whole story. The program is designed to provide government jobs for all who can't find private employment. The ratio now for public employees is one for ever four-and-a-half in private enterprise. Or try this one on for size--there are approximately 73 million people in the country working and earning in private enterprise. They are the only source government has for tax revenue. Their taxes are supporting 81 million other Americans who are totally dependent on tax dollars for their year 'round income. That should be a convincing argument against making government the employer of last resort. The administration has projected that this program will put 1.4 million people to work by 1981. Private business and industry created more jobs than that in just two months and it didn't take a single tax dollar to do it. Welfare can be reformed by using common sense. The objective should be to care for those who can't help themselves, give temporary aid to those who can while you get them back into the private industry job market. But it looks as if the White House has given up on this objective before it begins. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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