WARRING ON WELFARE: IT'S TIME WE TOLD THE TRUTH

The other day a candidate to become the next Governor of Missouri was quote as saying: "We all know the welfare system isn't working." The would-be governor proceeded to promise that if only the voters would install him in the executive office, he would "fix" it, although he seemed not to have the inclination at that precise moment to offer any solutions.

How could we hold an election in Missouri without the candidates agreeing that the "welfare system" in the state was a total disaster? How could we conscientiously select our next state leader without first hearing his promises to correct the flaws and make the machinery run properly? How long has it been that we've been hearing the same objections and same promises that are again being voiced in 1992?

For several decades now, Missourians have been told their system of alleviating hunger, pain and suffering among the poor was inoperable. For years on end, we have all listened to charges that the "bloated bureaucracy" of the "welfare system" was simply living off the largesse of the taxpayers of the state.

These charges and pledges to correct the charges have been as much a part of the campaign glossary as the promise to keep taxes low, the pledge to reduce waste and corruption, and the oath to get tough on criminals and end the tendency of the criminal justice system to coddle murderers and rapists.

There are some countervailing facts which, if fully understood by John Q. Public, would preclude this incessant drum beat against the Missourians who, most often through no fault of their own, find themselves at the mercy of the state, even if only temporarily. Perhaps if the public better understood the true facts involving the state's welfare system, there would be fewer demagogues willing and anxious to take advantage of our abysmal ignorance of the truth. We might even be able to have an intelligent discussion of how best to meet the needs of the poor and unfortunate, without being subjected to a bunch of half-truths and downright fabrications.

Let's begin with the argument that there's a whole army out there who have chosen to make welfare a career. The truth is, the average welfare recipient stays on the Department of Social Services rolls less than a year. It is hard to imagine that anyone receiving less than minimum wage to feed, clothe and house an entire family would be anxious to spend his or her life under such circumstances. Unless we believe that being poor is automatically the same thing as being lazy and shiftless, then we should recognize that having to cope with unemployment, because of lack of training and facing great discomfort, because of a lack of money, hardly constitute the nirvana pictured by unsympathetic critics.

It is true, as so many have charged, that some families produce more children than their financial status could possibly support, but the truth of the matter is that the average welfare mother has no more children than the average mother who is not on welfare. Surprised? Well, this revealing fact was released just the other day by an agency that seems to have little sympathy for the mother receiving public assistance; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

One of the best social service programs in existence is the Family Preservation plan which seeks to keep families together as a unit through the use of a trained worker. While many welfare plans are merely Band-aids to keep families in food and substandard housing. Family Preservation is designed to improve the chances of the family leaving welfare assistance and making it on their own. The program has been slow in coming to Missouri because of inadquate funding, and it is still not fully financed, with only one or two trained workers available within two-county areas. But the program works, and it is high on the priority list of needed appropriations in Jefferson City because it is one of the few plans in existence that will provide a better life for poor families in our state.

Family Preservation won't be fully funded by this year's Legislature, and quite possibly won't receive sufficient money for several years without public recognition of its advantages and public demand for its full implementation. To date we haven't heard any of the political critics of the welfare system mention how they propose to fully fund this badly needed program. What we have heard for the most part is only the attention-getting denunciation of welfare queens who drive up to get their monthly checks in a non-existent Cadillac. Such charges have worked in the past, and there is little to indicate they won't work again in this year's campaign.

But such charges don't do anything for the poor. They only help the politicians who are anxious to exploit the poor.