The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 15, 1994 - 9
President
renews plea
for reform
of welfare
WASHINGTON (AP) - One in
seven children is on welfare, more
than one in 10 Americans buys gro-
ceries with food stamps and the num-
ber of births to unwed mothers is
climbing toward one in three.
That's acrisis to PresidentClinton,
who argues that the nation's welfare
system must be revolutionized. Con-
servatives agree, but many liberals
question the need for drastic action,
especially if the administration pays
for reform by wringing savings from
other programs for low-income fami-
lies.
One thing is certain: Caseloads
are mushrooming and costs are soar-
ing, draining federal and state trea-
suries.
Conservatives also see a crisis of
illegitimacy and dependency. They
say welfare is "illegitimacy's eco-
nomic life-support system" and re-
sponsible for a permanent class of
broken families.
"The welfare system is in a crisis.
Millions of families are trapped in
welfare programs that rob them of
their dignity and deny them opportu-
nity," said Rep. Rick Santorum of
Pennsylvania, the senior Republican
on the House Ways and Means Sub-
committee on Human Resources.
"The system sanctions and even
encourages children to have children.
We need to fix America's welfare
system and we need to do it now," he
said.
Clinton has said he'll introduce
legislation this spring to do -just that.
Under his plan, single parents on
welfare would get the education, train-
ing and child-care they need to find
work and then leave the rolls within
24 months.
In the short term, it is cheaper to
just keep writing welfare checks than
setting up training, work and day-
care programs for single mothers,
many of them high school dropouts
with little work experience.
Widespread child-care 'shortages
*and quality problems also could com-
plicate reform, according to an inves-
tigation by Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.),
the chair of the House Small Business
subcommittee on regulation.
At a hearing last week, Wyden
said welfare reform could strain a
child-care system that already is over-
burdened and underfinanced, frag-
mented and "creaking toward break-
down."
Some liberals are not convinced
there is a "welfare crisis" at all, in-
cluding Rep. Patsy Mink of Hawaii, a
leader of liberal House Democrats
who are pushing a go-slow approach
to reform.
"There are many things that could
be changed in the welfare structure,
but I don't believe it's of crisis pro-
portions and requiring the doubling
of money that we spend," Mink said.
If there is a crisis, said Mink, it is
one of children going to bed hungry
and growing up poor.
Other welfare experts say that
while the situation may not be the
nation's most urgent problem, there
is growing consensus that however
well-intentioned, welfare has failed
taxpayers and the poor alike.
Welfare reform will target Aid to
Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC), a state-federal program that
supports about 5 million low-income
families, most of them headed by
single mothers. But food stamps,
which help nearly 27 million Ameri-
cans buy their groceries, will also be
affected.
Caseloads in both programs have
risen dramatically since the economic
downturn of the late 1980s.
Food stamps have risen from 18.6
million recipients and a cost $12.3
billion in 1988 to 26.9 million recipi-
ents and an estimated cost of $23.6
billion in 1993.
AFDC has grown from 3.75 mil-
lion families in 1988 and a total cost
of $19 billion to 4.97 million families
* and a cost of $25.8 billion in 1993.
There are 9.3 million children in
families on AFDC.
A SINGLE RED CARNATION FOR VALENTINE'S DAY
King demands
independence for
S. African nation
LOS ANGELES TIMES
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - In
a move that creates a dangerous new
crisis for this country's troubled tran-
sition to democracy, the king of the
Zulus abruptly announced yesterrday
that he intends to set up his own
independent state so he can rule as a
sovereign monarch of South Africa's
largest ethnic group.
During a three-hour meeting with
President Frederik W. de Klerk in the
southeastern city of Durban, King
Goodwill Zwelithini demanded that
the government effectively restore the
traditional Zulu kingdom and cede
him exclusive control of the apart-
heid-created Black homeland of
KwaZulu and the entire eastern prov-
ince of Natal.
"I demand that you give the Zulu
nation the opportunity to become free
once again and to choose their own
destiny for themselves," the king said.
The new Zulu nation, he told tens
of thousands of cheering supporters
at a jammed soccer stadium rally prior
to the meeting, would exist "on its
own with its own territorial basis and
with its own government." He in-
sisted the Zulu people had "an in-
alienable right to self-determination."
The king, a mercurial figure who
commands respect among many of
the estimated 8 million Zulus, said
that he would not abide by the results
of the country's first free elections in
April, and that he would not respect
the recently negotiated interim con-
stitution for a post-apartheid govern-
ment.
He said he would instead promul-
gate his own constitution to "estab-
lish a monarchy modeled after the
best examples of democratic and plu-
ralistic monarchies in the world."
The proposed territory, essentially
the northeastern quadrant of South
Africa, would include all the land
Zwelithini 's
unexpected demand
goes far beyond
previous calls by Zulu
leaders for regional
autonomy, and adds
sharp new pressures
on the government and
the African National
Congress.
conquered by British colonial forces
from the Zulus in 1834.
Zwelithini's unexpected demand
goes far beyond previous calls by
Zulu leaders for regional autonomy,
and adds sharp new pressures on the
government and the African National
Congress. The ANC's president, Nelson
Mandela, is expected to become the
country's first Black president after the
April 26-28 election.
There is virtually no chance that
the ANC would allow the Zulus to
secede. But differences between Zulus
and Xhosas, especially those in the
ANC, have been a root cause of the
spiral of political violence that has
claimed more than 13,000 lives in the
last four years.
Both the white-led government
and the ANC oppose the creation of
separate territories on the basis of
race or ethnicity. Under apartheid,
homelands were created to separate
the races and deny South African citi-
zenship to Blacks.
De Klerk appeared to downplay
Zwelithini's demand, telling report-
ers after the meeting that he would
formally respond to the king's "new
position" on Thursday after consult-
ing his Cabinet. He said the constitu-
tion could be amended, if necessary,
to accommodate "special needs."
Packwood asks for
further delay in release
of personal diaries
ELIZABETH LIPPMAN/Daily
Valentine's Day works its charm on this Ann Arbor couple yesterday, prompting them to stop at this local florist.
Clinton predicts U.S. economy
w grow at3.1 rate in
WASHINGTON (AP)- President,
Clinton used his first annual economic
report yesterday to proclaim his poli-
cies had put the country on track for
rising prosperity for years to come.
Clinton forecast that the economy
would keep growing through the rest
of this decade and the pace would be
fast enough to meet his campaign
pledge of 8 million new jobs during
his first term. His administration, he
told Congress, had replaced "drift and
deadlock with renewal and reform."
The 398-page report conceded that
this optimistic scenario could be in
danger if long-term interest rates sud-
denly start rising, consumer spending
falters or weakness in such big over-
seas markets as Europe and Japan is
more prolonged than expected.
The annual report predicted that
the overall economy, as measured by
the gross domestic product, will grow
by 3.1 percent this year and 2.8 per-
cent in 1995.
That outlook, upon which the
president based his 1995 budget, is in
line with private forecasters. The
National Association of Business
Economists said yesterday it believed
the economy would grow 3.2 percent
this year and 2.8 percent in 1995.
The 49th edition of the "Economic
Report of the President" represented
a sharp break from the past 12 Repub-
lican versions which had sung the
praises of government deregulation
and lower tax rates.
"For too long and in too many
ways, our nation has been drifting,"
Clinton said in a message transmit-
ting the report to Congress. "For 12
years a policy of trickle-down eco-
nomics built a false prosperity on a
mountain of federal debt."
Clinton praised his $500 billion
deficit reduction plan, half of which
comes from raising taxes, for putting
the country on a sounder economic
footing in just one year by lowering
interest rates and thusspurring a boom
in sales of big-ticket items such as
homes and cars.
"As a result of our efforts, the
economy now is on a path of rising
output, increasing employment and
falling deficits," the president said.
"In considering President
Clinton's gusher of praise for his eco-
nomic record today, we should re-
member that no modern president's
economic program has required less
than 18 months to have an impact on
the economy," said Sen. Phil Gramm
(R-Texas ).
The Clinton document devoted
several pages to attacking a key sup-
ply-side tenet, that cutting tax rates
can result in higher tax revenues and
that boosting tax rates on the wealthy
can actually result in lower taxes as
more income is sheltered. The report
said a review of tax history proved
these claims false.
The Clinton report sought to build
a case for a more activist federal ap-
proach. It said the government must
invest more in education, training and
research to boost American produc-
tivity.
One chapter in the book was de-
voted to building a case for Clinton's
massive health reform program, seek-
ing to answer critics who have con-
tended its employer mandates to pro-
vide health coverage will cost the
economy jobs.
While noting possible risks to the
economic outlook in the form of an
unexpected jump in interest rates or
flagging consumer demand, Laura
D'Andrea Tyson, head of the
president's Council of Economic
Advisers, told reporters that the ad-
ministration was comfortable with its
economic outlook, especially because
it was in line with most private fore-
casters.
"There is widespread agreement
that the fundamentals for the economy
look particularly strong compared to
the past 20, 30 years," she said.
THE BALTIMORE SUN
WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert
Packwood (R-Ore.), carried to a higher
court yesterday his running fight with
Senate ethics investigators over the
privacy of his personal diaries, asking
for more time to let the constitutional
dispute unfold.
In a request for a speedy ruling by
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here,
Packwood also sought a delay in any
release of his diaries to the Senate
Ethics Committee for use in its investi-
gation of misconduct charges.
U.S. DistrictJudgeThomas P.Jack-
son has ruled that Packwood has no
constitutional right to withhold the dia-
ries from the committee. Still, thejudge
has given the senator until Feb. 22 to
pursue an appeal.
That is "insufficient time" to get the
constitutional issues decided, the Cir-
cuit Court was told by Packwood's
lawyer, Jacob A. Stein. If the Ethics
Committee is cleared next week to start
reviewing diaries, the harm to his pri-
vacy "cannot be erased" even if the
senator ultimately wins his challenge,
the attorney said.
The senator claims that the
committee's demand for his taped dia-
ries and the written transcripts of them
is unconstitutionally broad, allowing
the investigators to "rummage" through
his private life. The diaries, the lawyer
said, deal not only with his work as a
senator, but also "his innermost
thoughts on a wide variety of private,
personal matters."
In addition, the senator fears that
the committee inquiry willforce him,
through the diaries, to give evidence
against himself that could be used in a
Justice Department criminal investiga-
tion. The department also has subpoe-
naed the diaries, but the courts have yet
to rule on that separate question.
v
338 S. State
nnOo1k1Ua
PRIIZErjS!
come in costume, come as you are!
FREE MASKS & BEADS
(Hey, Mister! Throw Me Something)
Northwestern College of Chiropractic
is now accepting applications for its next three entering classes.
(April 1994, September 1994, January 1995)
General requirements at time of entry include:
o Approx. 2.3 years of college in a life or health science degree program.
WING IT! AT