Reagan Administration’s Proposal for Welfare

Kuttner presents poor arguments. He says that the Reagan Administration’s plan to cash out the transfer payments to the poor is a thinly veiled attack on those below the poverty line. I wholeheartedly disagree.

The poor can set their own priorities, and decide how to spend their own money, without a paternalistic government telling them how and where to spend it. In fact, it is cynical to assume the poor cannot prioritize their spending. Since they have a limited budget and must choose between necessities they should be very good at budgeting.

The whole point of welfare programs is to make the poor happier and better off, and they are in a better position to do that than the government.

Kuttner says that a poor family forced to choose between a job-training program and paying the rent will pay the rent. I would too! What use is a job training program if you and your family have no place to sleep at night?

Another benefit of the proposal is that it would allow consolidation of several different welfare programs. Each of these programs needs separate applications, sends separate checks, has separate social workers, etc. Much of the money that should rightly go to the poor ends up feeding the voracious government bureaucracy. This is a ridiculous state of affairs, and it is high time it was changed.

DANA ANDERSON JR.

Goleta