Clinton Vetoes GOP’s Welfare Overhaul Plan

President Clinton on Tuesday vetoed the sweeping GOP plan to overhaul the welfare system, thwarting Republican efforts to dismantle the 60-year-old federal safety net for poor families and shift responsibility for new programs to the states.

The veto, which Clinton had vowed to deliver, is a politically risky one for him, given that the GOP initiative has broad public support and that he campaigned on the pledge to “end welfare as we know it.”

But Clinton argued that the GOP blueprint for changing the system would be too tough on children in many ways, including cutting funds for disabled children and not providing enough money to care for children whose parents take jobs.

“The Congress should not use the words ‘welfare reform’ as a cover to violate the nation’s values,” Clinton said in his veto statement. “We must demand responsibility from young mothers and young fathers, not penalize children for their parents’ mistakes.”

After the veto, Republicans criticized Clinton and asked him to produce his own detailed welfare reform plan.

“By vetoing welfare reform, the president has demonstrated what he is against,” said Rep. Bill Archer (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “Now he must demonstrate what he is for.”

The veto came shortly after budget talks between the White House and Congress broke off with the sides still far from compromise. As the negotiations crumbled, the president and Congress were $37 billion apart in the amount of savings they have proposed over seven years in welfare funding and the earned income tax credit.

The president said he is determined to work with Congress to reform welfare and Republican congressional leaders expressed willingness to negotiate, so the prospects for overhauling the system do not appear to be dead.

“If he thinks he’s going to get a Democratic bill out of a Republican Congress, he’s not looking at it realistically,” said Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), chief architect of the GOP welfare reform plan. “We’re willing to negotiate and compromise. But if he wants to deliver on his campaign promise of welfare reform, he’s going to have to deal with the Republican Congress. We have already moved substantially in his direction.”

If Clinton cannot compromise with Congress, Shaw added: “Then he’s given the Republicans the political issue that will defeat him next November.”

The House and Senate passed the welfare bill the week before Christmas, but by margins fewer than the two-thirds majorities needed in each house to override Clinton’s veto.

The president is willing to accept the basic structure of the GOP welfare reform effort, which would transfer control over cash welfare to the states and provide them with lump-sum block grants to help pay for their programs, according to senior administration officials. The measure would also set the first time limit that cash benefits can be collected--five years in a lifetime--and require parents to work after two years on the dole.

Clinton will not sign a bill that reduces future spending from current levels of assistance for abused and disabled children, as would the GOP plan, the officials said.