Reagan Hits Democrats’ Plan for Welfare Reform

President Reagan today renewed his attack on a Democratic welfare reform bill and cautioned the nation’s governors against looking to Washington for solutions to the problems of child-care.

His remarks were a disappointment for governors lobbying for Senate passage of a welfare reform bill, including Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, a Democratic presidential hopeful.

Dukakis told reporters on the White House lawn, “A number of us are disappointed that the Administration won’t support the governors’ welfare reform bill and I think we are going to push very hard to get them to do that.”

“Just one word from the President, I think, would get this bill passed and done before the election, and get it off the table as a partisan issue and get going,” Dukakis said.

Instead of signaling his support, Reagan told the National Governors Assn. that he is still strongly supporting a less costly Republican alternative that the House has already defeated.

He said it would allow states to pursue their own strategies for getting people off the welfare rolls and back to work.

‘Federalism Gaining’

“Federalism, as arcane and maybe even antiquated as it may sound to some, is gaining momentum with success following success,” the President said. States “are showing that they can teach the all-wise federal government a thing or two.”

“Perhaps the greatest test of federalism is how we meet the urgent need for welfare reform, how successful we are in fashioning the local and community solutions to problems that would destroy families,” said Reagan, who charged that current welfare programs are “a crippling poverty trap.”

Reagan said the alternative bill sponsored by House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois would also give states freedom to “develop your own ideas on child care.”

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are pressing for increased federal spending to help working parents pay for child care.

Reagan said, “I’d just like to sound a note of caution: It’s natural in politics when there’s a perceived need in the country and people are calling out for solutions, they look to government first. . . . Maybe it’s my conservative bent, but I can’t help but feel uneasy sometimes.”

“Much of the push for child care is designed to rectify the ills of earlier programs, and many of these efforts are timely and good. But in this area more than any other, government should tread carefully and humbly because we are dealing with the most fundamental element of human society, the family,” Reagan said.