Biden Would Ease ‘Awesome Sinkhole’ of Child Poverty : Offers $10-Billion Plan That Includes Free Health Care, Doubling of Head Start Program

Warning that the plight of impoverished children not only affronts the national conscience but threatens hopes for economic growth, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) on Friday outlined a broad plan for redirecting federal assistance to poor youngsters.

In a speech delivered at Princeton University and in accompanying policy statements released here by his presidential campaign office, Biden proposed free health care for all poor children up to age 12. In addition, he urged doubling the size of the Head Start program for pre-school children and changes in welfare and tax laws to strengthen family ties.

‘Beyond Moral Outrage’

“The problems of our children go beyond moral outrage,” Biden said in the speech, which was the latest in a series designed to provide a substantive underpinning for his presidential campaign. He described the difficulties facing underprivileged youngsters as “an awesome sinkhole, sucking the opportunity right out of our future. It is draining away our national strength, our collective intelligence, our combined capabilities.”

The threat to family stability posed by economic and social upheaval has led a number of Democratic presidential candidates--notably former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt and the Rev. Jesse Jackson--to focus on the problems of children. But Biden’s statements, which included a 12-point legislative agenda, appeared to be the most ambitious attempt so far to address the issue.

Biden estimated the overall cost of his proposals, which he said should be implemented gradually, at less than $10 billion at the outset. And he contended that, in the long run, many of the programs he recommended would help pay for themselves.

In the meanwhile, Biden said, the extra drain on the federal budget would be more than covered by a series of deficit-cutting measures he proposed in the economic program he released last week. Those included cuts in defense spending, an oil import duty and switching present quotas on imports to tariffs.

‘Myths’ Refuted

Biden sought to refute what he called the “myths” propagated by both conservatives and liberals. He contended that the conservative claim that government programs for the poor actually encourage poverty is inconsistent with the facts.

Also, Biden rejected liberal “orthodoxy,” which he said placed too much dependence on government, and blamed that attitude for public skepticism about many government programs.

“It should have been no surprise that taxpayers would become resentful of the way that we not so much spend on poverty in this country as much as we finance it,” Biden said. To alleviate that problem, in part, he called for changing welfare regulations to require all mothers, except those with “very young” children, either to work or participate in some form of job training.

Among proposals to bolster family bonds, Biden called for changing welfare laws in some states that deny benefits to children if their fathers live at home and for adjusting the earned income tax credit to increase the benefits to families with more than one dependent child.

Biden said also that the government should encourage volunteer efforts to help poor children by private and community groups. And he proposed the creation of a National Community Service Corps, with about 50,000 volunteers working nationwide with local agencies involved in helping the poor. This program, he said, would replace existing programs such as VISTA.

Although Biden focused his proposals on helping poor children, he likened some of their problems to those afflicting youngsters from more affluent homes.

Rising Suicide Rate

He cited evidence of increasing drug use among middle-class children and a rise in the suicide rate. And he specifically mentioned San Marcos High School in San Diego County, Calif., where, he said, more than 150 girls--about one out of every five seniors--were pregnant in one recent school year.

Although middle-class children have “a vivid appreciation” of what money can buy, Biden said, “they suffer from a harrowing lack of appreciation of what it can’t.” He added that “our children--all of our children--are at risk.”