Clinton Calls For Bipartisan Welfare Bill

DENVER (AllPolitics, July 22) -- President Bill Clinton challenged Congress to pass a bipartisan welfare reform bill, one that he said would help move recipients from welfare to work while being "good to the kids."

Welfare reform, passed last Thursday by the House, is expected to be taken up by the Senate this week. While generally supportive of the House legislation, the Clinton Administration objects to provisions barring legal immigrants from welfare, cutting aid to children after their parents have used up allowable benefits, and changing the food stamp program into a system of block grants.

Those provisions, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Saturday, are "unacceptable." But Vice President Al Gore, speaking Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," avoided a veto threat and said the measure's "real shortcomings" could be overcome.

The welfare issue is laden with politics. Having promised in 1992 "to end welfare as we know it," Clinton would open himself up to scathing criticism from Republicans if he vetoes the bill. But some liberals will be just as angry at him for signing on to the GOP's plan to change welfare into a system of block grants administered by the states, combined with requirements that welfare recipients find jobs. It's a watershed approach that would end the New Deal approach to welfare.

Clinton has already vetoed two GOP welfare bills, objecting to provisions that would have used block grants to fund Medicaid, which provides health care to the poor. This time, Republicans agreed to drop that reform.

"It's true I have vetoed two bills that had the label 'welfare reform' on them," the president said. "I didn't think they were welfare reform."

Clinton also announced a strategy to shame parents into paying child support. Flyers displaying deadbeat parents will be displayed at Post Offices nationwide, and a new Internet site will identify them as well.

"If you owe child support, you'd better pay it," Clinton warned. "We'll track you down with computers, we'll track you down with law enforcement, we'll find you through the Internet -- not because anybody has particular interest in humiliating someone, but because we have got ... to succeed at work and at home, and it has to begin with parents doing their part."

Clinton Calls For Bipartisan Welfare Bill

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