Welfare Cuts

Roberta Ikemi’s comments (“Are Some Children Worth More Than Others?” Commentary, Jan. 1) mix apples and oranges, and further the misconceptions of the issues surrounding tax cuts/educational credits for the middle class, and reform of the welfare system which supports millions of people who do not work for their income.

The issues are simple: The people who provide most of the funds, via taxes, with which government operates are the middle class, the wage earners and small business people who personify the American Dream. The proposed tax credits coming from Washington would aid these productive individuals by easing the costs of child-rearing and education.

On the other hand, there is a growing mass of people who do not contribute to the money-pool, but instead take from it, returning little and surely not carrying their share of their load. For them, that famous dream appears to be a “free ride.”

Hundreds of thousands of children are born each year into this second group. Under our current system, the ranks of the “needy” who require more and more of the tax dollar for food, shelter and services continue to swell. Those services and benefits are costly; in fact now, in California, if you have more children while on welfare, your “need standard” goes up--and so does the amount of benefits the state, read that “the taxpayers,” gives you.

No one is telling welfare recipients they cannot have more children, but their benefactors, you and I, are saying that we have come to the end of the financial golden road.

The message is clear: Parents are responsible for their children.

ELOISE ANDERSON, Director

California Department of Social Services

Sacramento