CURRENT WELFARE SYSTEM IS FAILING THE UNITED STATES

There are some mighty weighty issues on the table this year. Health care reform has taken the front burner, but a secondary issue that will greatly affect both state and federal budgets is that of welfare reform. Both President Clinton and Gov. Carnahan have touted welfare reform as top administration goals.

One of the overall goals of welfare reform is to break the intergenerational cycle of public assistance. Instead of learning a trade or good work ethics from their families, too many kids learn how to live off the system.

But the blame does not rest solely with recipients. Government has made welfare such a good deal that it's often not fiscally responsible for people to break free.

In Missouri, a person on Aid to Family with Dependent Children (AFDC) receiving Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits would have to earn $7.34 an hour to reach their current level of benefits. That's well above the current minimum wage of $4.25 an hour -- with no guarantee of health benefits.

Today's welfare system competes with entry level jobs. It has turned into a work disincentive.

Two Southeast Missouri senators -- Sen. Jerry Howard and Sen. Peter Kinder -- are serving on a joint legislative committee that is looking at welfare reform. They are heartened by the fact there is broad bipartisan consensus that the welfare system needs fixing. Ideas that were considered radical just a few years ago -- such as Learnfare and Workfare -- are moving well into the mainstream.

And support for changes are increasingly coming from not only legislators and those who administer the system, but the recipients themselves. What better signal do we need to tell us the system has failed?

We must build work incentives back into the welfare system. These incentives must include expanding education, training and child care options for low-income families -- so they can afford to work.

One option suggested is a phase out of welfare benefits when a recipient takes an entry level job. That certainly seems preferable to suddenly cutting off benefits even when the new income is meager.

Another popular push has been to place a time limit on people receiving AFDC payments. It's worth examining, but this might not be the problem it's been painted. The average person drawing AFDC in Missouri receives it for less than two years.

Limiting payments for more children has also been promoted as a way to eliminate another abuse of the system. Rep. Mary Kasten made this proposal last year, and was met with considerable wrath. One metropolitan editorial characterized her as "mean spirited." Anyone who knows Mary would laugh at the charge. She certainly has to top the list of caring legislators.

But that's been the approach of past welfare reform naysayers. Those who want to reform welfare want to hurt poor people -- that attitude is not only ridiculous, it's just plain wrong.

It's time our legislators and bureaucrats -- right up to the President of the United States -- develop some backbone about welfare. We want to help people, but not addict them on a lifetime of dependency. It's not good for people's self esteem, and our governments simply can't afford it. We can't be all things to all people.

We're glad to see this renewed interest -- both at the state and federal level -- to clean up welfare abuse. We realize massive changes won't come overnight, but we're glad to see government is taking a step in the right direction. We encourage area legislators to keep close watch on this reform effort -- to help ensure the cure is not worse than the illness.