Welfare Cuts

* Gov. Pete Wilson has again proposed Draconian cuts of 25% in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC) that nearly 2 million children depend on for their subsistence (Jan. 8). Such a cut would reduce a family to less than half the federal poverty level. This attempt to balance California’s budget at the expense of children, in the midst of recession and growing family homelessness, is callous and tyrannical in the extreme.

Additionally, Wilson calls for a two-year time limit on AFDC. Some commentators compare it to President Clinton’s welfare reform proposals for a two-year limit on receiving AFDC. Clinton, however, has seen the family devastation that looms with a simple-minded cutoff. He proposes to provide employment for such families should there be insufficient jobs in the private sector. Wilson proposes only a halt in aid and then washes his hands of these children. Will the people of a great state like California allow the governor to condemn nearly a quarter of the state’s children to penury and squalor? Now is the time to “just say no.”

KRIS OCKERSHAUSER

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

South Pasadena