The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 11, 1995 - 3
. Clinton calls for higher minin
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - President
Clinton yesterday dusted off his dor-
mant "new covenant"campaign theme,
promoting a revised government job
training program for those seeking
work and enlisting Democratic sup-
port for increasing the minimum wage
for those already working.
Clinton built his 1992 presidential
campaign and his appeal to the middle-
class around what he called a "new
covenant" between government and
citizen: Washington would offer more
opportunity to all citizens but de-
mand responsibility in return.
Clinton returned to that theme
* Legislatorsv
return to
capital with
slim agenda
Full debate on new
bills will begin at the
end of the month
LANSING (AP) - It's back to
work for Michigan lawmakers to-
morrow. But work won't mean work
for at least another week.
Tomorrow marks the opening day
of Michigan's new, two-year legisla-
tive session. The day is expected to
be a short one before lawmakers break
again until Gov. John Engler's State
of the State address next Tuesday.
Some lawmakers will stay in Lan-
sing after the speech for committee
meetings, but full debate on newly
introduced bills won't start until the
end of the month.
"It's going to be all family, kids,
up here" to watch members be sworn
in and take their new desks in the
Senate and House, said Senate Minor-
ity Leader Arthur Miller (D-Warren).
The Senate plans its oath of office
at noon and then a short session to
formally open the session. The cer-
emonial opening will be bittersweet
because Lt. Gov. Connie Binsfeld, the
chamber's presiding officer, will be
absent due to heart surgery yesterday.
"She has a very strong presence
that is felt positively by people in
both parties," said Senate Majority
Leader Dick Posthumus (R-Alto). "It
makes it difficult to open the session
without her."
The House also meets at noon to
formally elect leaders, choose floor
seats and open its session.
"It should be a pretty pro forma
opening session," said Rep. Frank
Fitzgerald. The Grand Ledge Republi-
can is expected to be re-elected to his
post as the No. 2 House Republican.
Rep. Paul Hillegonds (R-Holland)
is expected to be elected Speaker of
the House. He was co-speaker in the
evenly divided House over the last
two years. He's set to become the first
GOP speaker in Michigan since 1968.
Other expected House leaders are
Ken Sikkema (R-Grandville) as ma-
jority floor leader; Curtis Hertel (D-
Detroit) as minority leader and Pat
Gagliardi (D-Drummond Island) as
minority floor leader.
With the start of a new legislative
session, bills have to be introduced
and printed before debate can get
started. Already hundreds of bills are
set to be introduced. Before the end of
the Legislature, thousands of propos-
als will be put into the system. Hun-
dreds will come out as new state laws.
Lawmakers expect tax changes
for businesses and families, educa-
tion and the state's budget to occupy
much of their time.
yesterday with a series of actions
aimed at rewarding "responsible" citi-
zenship, including a middle-class tax
cut and an effort to lift working-poor
Americans into the middle class with
a minimum wage hike and with less
bureaucratic and more effective job
training.
"What I want to do now is ...
spend two years working on lifting
incomes and prospects and optimism
and real hope for the future among
people who are carrying the load in
this country," Clinton said in a speech
in Galesburg, Ill. He said his propos-
als could be called "The Bill of Rights
and Responsibilities because it
doesn't do anything for anybody
who's not already doing something
for himself or herself."
"We need ... what I called during
my presidential campaign a new cov-
enant, a new approach to our society.
It was then, it has been for two years
and it will always remain my contract
with you," Clinton said.
Clinton argued that the federal
government can still be effective "to
help expand opportunity, but in a less
bureaucratic, less mandatory, more
empowering way."
At Carl Sandburg Community
College, Clinton put special empha-
sis on his plan to scrap some 50 job
mm wage
training programs scattered through-
out the government and replace them
with a voucher program that would
give $2,600 annual subsidies for two
years to eligible people. Recipients
could spend the money as they wish
on education.
As Clinton spoke, his aides con-
tinued to work on the details of the
minimum wage package that they ar-
gue will offer one of the clearer dis-
tinctions this year between Demo-
crats and Republicans.
Aides said the president has
signed off on proposing an increase
in the $4.25 per hour minimum
wage, but size of the increase and its
training
phasing-in are still being discussed
with congressional Democrats. A
senior official said the president
hopes to make a specific proposal
next week.
The official said the White House
is looking at proposing an increase to
at least $5.00 per hour, phased in
over five years.
The official said Democrats have
been "generally receptive" but "fear-
ful about handling the debate" with
Republicans over the issue. The out-
lines of that debate became clear the
past several days, as Democrats and
Republicans test-marketed their ar-
guments.
Clinton
Orgamzed food stamp
fraud costs U.S. billions
LSA Student Government President Ryan Boeskool announces a $1 refund
program at yesterday's meeting in the LSA Building.
LSA-SG unveil,,s $1
r* enfund guarantee
DETROIT (AP) -Scores of shiv-
ering poor squeeze into the warmth of
a tiny gray building to collect their
food stamps, the precious first allot-
ment of the new year.
Then they walk outside and
quickly sell the little coupons at a
discount to organized rings of cocky
street hawkers and crooked grocers,
who will redeem the stamps at full
value for a neat profit from the U.S.
government.
"I see 20-25 percent of the people
who come out of
there sell their 'I see 2-2:
stamps," says
Michigan State the people,
Police Lt. Lewis out of ther
Langhamhead of
a state and fed- Stamps.'
eral task force on Le
food stamp fraud.
The going rate is Michigan
50 cents to 70
cents cash on the
dollar.
Since the food stamp program be-
gan as an experiment under President
Kennedy in 1961, fraud has grown
bigger and better organized almost
every year. The Secret Service esti-
mates $2 billion of the $24 billion in
food stamps issued annually are re-
deemed illegally.
It has also become a motley form
of organized crime, with the scams as
diverse and complex as local Ameri-
can cultures. The Detroit racket,
played out around an east side distri-
bution center, is just one variety in a
garden of deceit.
In Akron, Ohio, a ring of ethnic
Palestinian grocers systematically
laundered hundreds of thousands of
dollars in food stamps.
In Albuquerque, N.M., con artists
canvass the destitute at homeless shel-
ters, offering to buy their benefits.
Restaurants aren't permitted to
sumer Service of
5 percent of
who come
e sell their
wis Langham
State Police
lieutenant
the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agricul-
ture, which runs
the food stamp
program. "There
are more crooks
in the program,
real crooks."
The Chinese
takeout scheme
has -spread from
New York's
Chinatown to
nearby states,
take food stamps for payment. but in
New York City, Chinese takeout res-
taurants accept them routinely.
Federal, state and local investiga-
tors say virtually every U.S. city has
an underground system to divert food
stamps, and there is evidence that
millions of dollars in food stamp prof-
its have disappeared overseas.
"We're finding million-dollar
cases," says Craig Beauchamp, in-
spector general of the Food and Con-
Crooks find
new ways to
use food cards
DETROIT (AP) - Con artists
and crooked supermarket cashiers
have already devised clever ways
to beat the little plastic card de-
signed to replace food stamps and
reduce welfare fraud, investiga-
tors say.
A dozen states are experiment-
ing with the Electronic Benefits
Transfer card, which the Clinton
administration envisions as the pri-
mary means of delivering federal
benefits by century's end.
Right now, however, it's used
mostly for welfare benefits in parts
of certain states. The recipient takes
his or her card to a grocer and the
amount of food purchased is elec-
tronically deducted from an account
containing the recipient's benefits.
But officials in states with the
program, such as New Jersey and
Maryland, are finding instances
where recipients and grocers are
conspiring to empty accounts.
In New Mexico, one of the first
states to try the program, officials
say they are finding increasingly
creative abuses. While fraud with
food stamps usually requires the
cooperation of the recipient and a
grocer, the electronic "debit card"
now lets dishonest cashiers collect.
During a purchase, a cashier
can surreptitiously make multiple
passes of a card through the elec-
tronic scanner, then take the
equivalent amount of cash debited
to the recipient's account from the
till, said Brett Woods, inspector
general of New Mexico's Human
Services Department.
By STEPHANIE JO KLEIN
For the Daily
If LSA students are not satisfied
with the performance of their student
government, they can now get their
dollars back. At last night's LSA Stu-
dent Government meeting, President
Ryan Boeskool announced his pro-
posal for the "LSA-SG Money Back
Guarantee Program."
According to the proposal, the
government is "attempting to provide
100% satisfaction to every student in
the College of LSA" by offering a
refund of the $1 student government
fee included in every student's tuition
payment.
The program's goal is to "learn
how (LSA-SG) can serve students
better," and to "show (LSA-SG) will
stand by its accomplishments and
commitments in the future." Dissatis-
fied students may go to the office at
4003 Michigan Union to complete
the refund process.
To receive a refund, students must
present their student ID card, read a
one-page summary of LSA-SG's ac-
tivities, submit suggestions for im-
provement of LSA-SG and fill out a
refund form.
Although 12 of the 13 members at
the meeting voted for the program,
with one abstention, the method of
payment is still in question. The $1
will either be credited to tuition bills
or given in person, after the official
request is filed.
Members also debated the effec-
tiveness of the program during the
hourlong meeting. Upon hearing one
member's comment that the program
would only yield a negative result,
External Affairs Officer Paul Garter
was quick to respond. "Showing stu-
dents that we are accountable is very
much a positive thing. Budget-wise,
of course, we lose money, but over-
all, the program is a winner for us and
the LSA students."
The program is intended to help
make people aware of LSA-SG and
its independence from the Michigan
Student Assembly. Boeskool said
MSA has more money and more re-
sources, but he "sees LSA-SG as get-
ting results. While they wallow in
politics, we set and accomplish goals,"
he asserted.
Benjamin Bolger, an LSA-SG
member, said the program will be an
effective tool. "In real government,
there are checks and balances. There
are no options to pay taxes. In addi-
tion to increasing accountability, this
is a proactive and positive check on
our government. It provides feedback,
an accurate gauge of constituent sat-
isfaction."
The program will be repeated at
the start of every term. The dead-
line to apply has not yet been de-
cided, but is expected to be either
Jan. 31 or Feb. 28.
says Joseph Yarrish, a USDA regional
inspector general. The restaurants use
the discounted. stamps to buy meat,
vegetables and other supplies from
Chinese grocers. The grocers then
redeem the coupons at full value or
pass them on to wholesalers for sup-
plies.
"That seems to be the hot thing,"
Yarrish says. "It looks like the Chi-
nese takeouts are out of control, just
blatantly taking food stamps."
In September, the U.S. Justice De-
partment indicted a couple, Kin Wo
Cheng and Man Wai Cheng, and Kin
Cheng's mother, Bick Yung Cheng, on
charges they used their restaurant sup-
ply business to illegally acquire and
redeem $3.5 million in food stamps.
The business, Sun Hing Trading, is
a wholesaler, but last year obtained a
food stamp license by claiming to be a
grocery store, the government alleges.
Lt. Gov. recovering from surgery
LANSING (AP) - Lt. Gov.
Connie Binsfeld came through four
hours of heart bypass surgery with
flying colors, Gov. John Engler's of-
fice reported yeterday evening.
Engler spokesman John Truscott
said surgeons performed a quadruple
bypass on the 70-year-old Binsfeld
and early observations indicated she
would have a full recovery in four to
six weeks.
"All indications are that the surgery
was a complete success. There was no
,damage to her heart," Truscott said.
Binsfeld was listed in critical but
stable condition in the intensive care
unit of Lansing's Michigan Capital
Medical Center. If all goes well, she'll
be in the intensive care unit for a day,
then leave the hospital after a week to
recuperate at home, Truscott said.
Engler is scheduled to leave the
state on Friday for a trip to Washing-
ton. Truscott said Binsfeld would be
alert and able to assume the responsi-
bilities of the governor's office while
Engler is away.
The surgeons who performed the
operation on Binsfeld weren't avail-
able yesterday evening to meet with
reporters.
Another cardiologist who had
talked with Binsfeld's doctors, Dr.
Gary Roth, said the lieutenant gover-
nor would be monitored closely for
the next 24 hours or so and she
wouldn't be totally out of the woods
until she's fully recovered.
Roth and Truscott said Binsfeld
didn't have a heart attack.
And Roth said Binsfeld's heart
problem wasn't related to a low blood
sugar episode that landed her in a
Traverse City hospital for three days
two weeks ago:
"It's not unusual for a person to
not know about a problem until just
before surgery," Roth said.
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New Year's Resolutions
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I 3. Pay off your parking tickets.I
* 2. Call parents, even if you don't need money
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