Further to my previous message in which I wrote that America is still basically a decent country, I have extracted four paragraphs from an Op-ed in today's New York Times -- by the president of the Democratic Leadership Council, formerly director of the Domestic Policy Council in the Clinton administration.
America has been making realistic attempts at reforming its welfare programme. At the same time it is still trying to maintain humanitarian standards: <<<< SATYING OFF WELFARE FOR GOOD By Bruce Reed WASHINGTON -- Now that we've officially entered our first recession in a decade, both supporters and opponents of the 1996 welfare reform law are asking the same question: Will tough love still work in tough times? The good news still far outweighs the bad. Thanks to a relentless national effort to reward and require work in the 1990's, single mothers are more likely to be working and less likely to be poor than ever before. A nine-year decline in teen births has reduced the number of young mothers, a group at high risk for going on welfare. Despite the recession, most people who left welfare for work are still working, and most who have lost jobs still have welfare to fall back on. Still, some aspects of the current downturn give cause for concern. The travel and tourism industry hired thousands of people who had been on welfare, and this was the economic sector hit hardest by the Sept. 11 attack. New York, where the economic impact of the terror attacks was greatest, also has the most new immigrants � and new immigrants do not qualify for federal assistance. Those of us who fought for welfare reform have a special responsibility to help the reformed system weather the recession. The Bush administration and Congress should revisit this issue and take steps now to make sure hard times don't slow the steady march from welfare to independence. . . . . >>>> Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
