8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 17, 1996 McKinsey & Company The Business Analyst Program Experts: Welfare suits will not affect system WASHINGTON (AP) - Ever since President Clinton signed the new wel- fare law in August, advocates for the poor have prepared to attack it in court: The American Civil Liberties Union in California became the first this week. But even if such challenges succeed, they are unlikely to achieve many meaningful results, legal experts say. That is because judges seldom go a step further and actually order a state legis- lature to spend more. "A court can find that a state govern- ment or a local government has violated its own laws with regard to protecting the poor," said Liz Krueger of New York's Community Food Resource Center. "But it rarely orders a legislature to change how it spends its revenue." Yet many advocates for the poor, as they consider or prepare lawsuits, are zeroing in on state laws that obligate governments to care for the poor. Twenty-two states have such laws, often in broadly worded language. As the federal government turns wel- fare spending authority and program design over to states, those laws have become vitally important for advocates seeking to restore aid. The California lawsuit filed Tuesday, for example, argues in part that a threat- ened end to prenatal care for illegal immigrant women would violate a California state law requiring "medical- ly necessary pregnancy-related ser- vices:' regardless of immigrant status. The stakes are especially high because the new federal law gives states the option of shaving $40 billion from pub- lic assistance programs in addition to the $54 billion reduction the federal govern- ment plans over the next seven years. But those who have sued govern- ments say taking on a government can be a long, frustrating battle full of illu- sory triumphs. As an example, Krueger cited a string of court rulings over the past 10 years holding New York City in con- tempt for failing to provide enough homeless shelters. "New York has been beaten up in court for the past 10 years,"she said. "Have w assured the right to shelter? No." Even when judges declare a city or state in violation of laws, they often leave it to the municipality to correct the problem, noted Steven Banks, a: lawyer who represents the homeless for, New York City's Legal Aid Society. Only if that doesn't happen is a judge likely to order some specific remedy - for example, more money for homeles- shelters or feeding programs. And governments often appeal tho rulings, meaning the entire process caf take years. "It's possible to make a difference in the long run," Banks said. "In the short run, it's very slow going in most st' court systems." In the District of Columbia, for example, advocates have long battled the city over its foster care program. A federal judge first ruled against the. city in 1991, ordering sweepit4 changes in indigent care. .. I Party time One of thousands of supporters of Nicaraguan presidential candidate Amoldo Aleman, one of the Liberal Alliance party, recoils as a he fires a home-made mortar yesterday. It was part of Aleman's closing campaign rally in the capital. 01 DEBATE Continued from Page IA McKinsey & Company is a professional firm that advises senior management of the world's leading organizations on issues of strategy, organization, and operations. Our Business Analyst Program offers college graduates an opportunity to work for 2 or 3 years as full members of our consulting teams and become familiar with many aspects of management and leadership. We seek bright, creative, intellectually curious men and women with exceptional records of academic achievement, strong analytic and quantitative skills, proven leadership and teamwork abilities, and excellent communication skills. For further information, please attend our Fall presentation on Thursday, October 24 at University of Michigan Business School, Room 1276 at 4:30 pm LSA junior Jamie Price said Dole fared well in an uphill battle last night. "Although the debate (format) was slanted in Clinton's favor, 1 think that Dole did a good job in defending his position," Price said. Republicans were ecstatic at Dole's performance, saying he had delivered a broad Clinton critique without appear- ing mean or overly negative. But White House aides noted that not one of the 19 questions from voters was about ethics - and suggested Dole would suffer for ignoring several questions to instead deliver attack lines. Traugott called Dole's attacks "weak," especially in light of expectations of more aggressive character charges. But Republicans were looking for a stronger showing last night to tighten the race and boost the Republican image not only for Dole, but for House and Senate candidates across the coun- try, said University communication CAMPAIGN Continued from Page1A views budgeting for social well-being programs with this summer's passage of the new welfare bill. The legislation takes welfare out of the entitlement pot and allocates funding for the program in one lump sum to the states. Changes to the way Social Security is funded probably won't affect the vot- ing block of senior citizens that candi- dates are so worried about losing if they suggest new ideas for allocating benefits, Gramlich said. "Those are people who probably won't be getting very much affected," Gramlich said. Candidates regularly court the senior citizen voting block and experts have drawn correllations between these vot- ers and the issues tackled by the politi- cians they elect. Maynard said members of Congress who "went after" Social Security dur- ing their terms weren't re-elected part- ly based on that issue. Younger voters should be concerned studies Prof. Trevor Thrall. "He did sort of a middle of the road job," Thrall said. "He needed to do bet- ter than he did tonight." Clinton was called the narrow win- ner by five of six high school and col- lege debate coaches who judged it for The Associated Press. TV network polls found more than half thought Clinton won, about a quarter favored Dole and a smaller share rated it a tie. "I basically found that nothing really changed because of this - I guess you could say it was a nonevent," said LSA first-year student Tobias Burmeister. Clinton's strategy was to defend his double-digit lead and stay above the fray. In doing so, he left many of Dole's salvos unanswered, including Dole's demand that he rule out pardons for Arkansas associates targeted in the so- called Whitewater investigation. Clinton also did not respond directly to Dole's criticism of the administration's collection of more than 900 sensitive FBI files, including those of several prominent Republicans. "I don't want to respond in kind for all of these things," Clinton said. "I could. I could answer to all these things tit for tat. But I hope we can talk about the future" Over and over again, Dole turned to the issue of trust. He said Clintcn had promised in 1992 to cut taxe@ and then raised them. He said Clinton spoke of his opposition to racial quotas and preferences, but had ended only one of 168 federal programs that allowed them. And he said Clinton was grossly distorting Republican positions on Medicare and the impact of Dole's $548 bil- lion tax-cut package. "When you are the president of the United States, you have a public tru t ! and you have to keep that public trust Dole said. "And I think now that trust is being violated. On a night of spirited exchanges, one moment of political theater came when Clinton labeled Dole's tax plan a "scheme" that would either inflate the deficit or require devastating cuts in Medicare and other vital programs. SEARCH Continued from Page1A public meeting. Though this transaction was not barred in the court ruling, Harrison said logistical difficulties pre- vented the information from going out early. Harrison said the most recent plan for the search's final stages could not be finalized until pending legal issues were settled. "We were prohibited from announc- ing the process or doing anything under it by the temporary restraining order, which said we could not proceed with the search,' Harrison said. But the temporary restraining order expired at the court hearing Tuesday. The administration waited to release the newest calendar for the search until after Morris signed a court order at about 6 p.m. yesterday to formalize her prior ruling. Harrison emphasized that the court order defines what is prohibited in the search - not the way the overall search is to be conducted. why can't the regents just look at the applications themselves and discuss that information? "If Lehman is there, that means that they want to get more information than what is on the application" Lowenstein said. Representatives for the three plaintiff newspapers could not be reached last night. Chemistry Prof. Thomas Dun* who chairs the faculty's governing., body, said the faculty will benefit from having greater access to infor- mation on the candidates. He said he is anxious to see the names recom- mended by PSAC. "I'll be there at 9 o'clock in the . morning to see what unfolds. We'll take it from there, I guess." Fiona Rose, president of t Michigan Student Assembly, said t delay shouldn't affect the search crite- na. "It is most important that we have a leader who has the trust and respect of this University," Rose said. "If it takesa. few days longer, so be it." McKinsey's World Wide Web Site (http://www.mckinsey.com) AmtrFmAlna An n si ?R 1 rni "mav Rc