Welfare Is the Responsibility of Families

As the son of legal immigrants who came to this country fleeing the tyranny of communist China, I am both intrigued and insulted to hear California’s two U.S. senators argue that the welfare reform bill passed by the Senate last week is “unnecessarily harsh” and “cruel” to immigrants by denying them benefits that are available to citizens.

Like those who arrived before them, my parents came to the United States seeking “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Contrary to the patronizing liberal rhetoric from the likes of Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and, in the House, Democrat Robert Matsui of Sacramento, my parents and so many others managed to scratch their way up the economic ladder without relying on the federal welfare program. While they are by no means rich, their situation is a far cry from what it would have been had they stayed behind. For my father, life was first and foremost on his mind when he came to America. “Liberty and happiness, while important, were not exactly the priorities,” my father tells me in his halting English.

Feinstein argues “the ultimate test of a civilization is how we treat the least among us.” I’d say my father fit that category when he arrived in San Francisco in 1958 with a cardboard suitcase, $5 in his pocket and no command of the English language. According to the liberal establishment’s logic, my parents were eligible to shrug their shoulders and rely on that gravy train we’ve come to know as welfare. Not having read “Zai Meiguo Sheng Huo Xu Zhi” (“Important Facts About Life in America”), currently available in bookstores in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Chinatowns throughout the United States, my parents and thousands like them didn’t know that they were “entitled” to the plethora of welfare benefits provided by the American taxpayers. Actually, it wouldn’t have made a difference. Driven by the values of hard work and sacrifice, they never felt “entitled” to anything they hadn’t worked for.

Why, then, are Boxer and Feinstein and Vice President Al Gore so critical of a proposal to deny welfare benefits to people who aren’t even U.S. citizens? Have they forgotten President Clinton’s promise to “reform welfare as we know it”?

There is something inherently wrong in the logic of saying to strangers, “Come on over, and don’t worry about becoming a citizen or contributing to your new homeland. This is the land of instant gratification. The taxpaying Americans already here will spare you the hard work and sacrifice. Here’s your open-ended check to Medicaid and SSI (Supplemental Security Insurance). Here’s cash for your kids. Food stamps. Public housing. No work necessary. Stay on as long as you want. We’ll just tax our citizens more.”

No wonder noncitizens are among the fastest growing groups of welfare dependents. “If current trends continue,” reports the Heritage Foundation in Washington, “the U.S. will have more than 3 million noncitizens on SSI within 10 years. Without reform, the total cost of SSI and Medicaid benefits for elderly noncitizen immigrants will amount to over $328 billion over the next 10 years.”

Feinstein spoke poignantly of a presumably elderly Chinese immigrant walking down Grant Avenue in San Francisco, “so hunched over, she could hardly walk. She is on SSI . . . and would be summarily thrown off” if the Senate bill becomes law. What is disturbing about this picture is the overlooked fact that legal aliens have relatives already here who have made a commitment to support the newcomers until they get on their feet. Since most sponsors do so, what is so “cruel” and “unnecessarily harsh” about requiring them to look after their immigrant relatives? How is this different from going after “deadbeat dads,” a favorite target when Boxer, Feinstein and Matsui take to the bully pulpit of public office? Logically, they have to reconsider their opposition to welfare reform and ask the sponsors of legal immigrants to fulfill their obligation to care for their own flesh and blood.

As my father can tell you, America does not guarantee happiness, only the right to pursue it. Many thousands of immigrants have come here to do that without ever becoming wards of the government. As they prospered, however modestly, they paid their taxes and became citizens; only then might they feel entitled to the benefits they had contributed to. If sponsors are required to provide for their immigrant relatives, the taxpaying citizens can keep more of their hard-earned money and pursue their dreams of happiness.