GET TOUGH POSTURE WORKS ONLY IF ACTIONS MATCH WORDS

Welfare-reform talk is tough and palatable to a voting public whose threshold for misspent tax dollars was long ago exceeded. But is the wave of welfare reform going to do the trick, braking the astonishing inertia of a failed social program? Obviously, the jury won't be in for some time on the recent changes in Missouri's welfare plan. There are good elements in it, but we see the effort as lacking innovation and teeth, giving a nod more to rhetoric than to enticing individuals to exit the welfare rolls.

Gov. Mel Carnahan chose Cape Girardeau last week as one of the sites to sign welfare reform legislation. This wasn't as threatening as when President Bill Clinton chose Missouri as a site for a major policy speech outlining his ideas for welfare reform. Clinton's endorsement of our state's initiatives should wave a red flag the size of the Ozarks. Ultimately, the problem with the Missouri plan and the problem with the Clinton plan are the same. The only things most people can be sure of is that administration of the system will swell and that more money will be spent. There is only speculation that people on welfare will eventually remove themselves from these rolls. And the chasm between what is certain and what is uncertain is enough to make the taxpayers of this state and this nation apprehensive.

Again, the measure signed by Gov. Carnahan last week contains several worthwhile provisions, enough to get bipartisan legislative support of many who acquiesced to the bill as a good start. We find particularly useful the stipulation that requires recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children to be enrolled in school in order to receive payments, as well as the requirement that an unmarried minor with a dependent child must live with a parent or guardian to get AFDC benefits. These are common-sense approaches that could potentially provide schooling and family stability to the 90,000 Missourians who get AFDC assistance.

The centerpiece of the Carnahan plan is a much-ballyhooed requirement that aid recipients sign agreements that will facilitate their removal from the welfare rolls in two years. Built into this provision is a promise of job training and enhanced short-term assistance, aspects of the plan sure to carry a steep price tag. And even by estimates of the Missouri Department of Social Services, which will administer the reforms, just 15,000 AFDC recipients (about 17 percent) will sign the so-called self-sufficiency pacts by 1997. And even that small percentage who sign the pacts will enjoy governmental tolerance if they get to the end of their two years and hold no gainful employment. The prospect of putting a new safety net in place is very real.

As with all such reforms, this one hasn't escaped politics. The state Republican chairman believes the governor's plan doesn't get to the heart of problems inherent to the massive welfare culture. Gov. Carnahan and fellow Democrats counter that the GOP has no standing for such criticism, since previous Republican administrations failed to address reforms of this sort. In this argument, we hold with a view expressed by former Gov. John Ashcroft. In response to news of President Clinton's welfare reform proposal, Mr. Ashcroft contended that the best welfare program is a job. And for whatever failings the Ashcroft administration can be accused of in not reforming welfare, it cannot be said that he held back the state's economy or its capacity for employment growth.

The Missouri welfare reforms signed into law last week are useful if only viewed as a starting point. If the rhetoric holds true and the recent legislation is regarded as a cure-all, then the welfare culture will persist. A get-tough posture by government works only if actions ultimately match words.