A Strange Form of Welfare Reform
* The Feb. 7 article regarding a pall being cast over the Vietnamese Tet festival gave lengthy discussion to the plight of many older citizens doomed financially by the recent welfare reform.
The article featured as an example a gentleman who had arrived in the United States two years ago at the age of 78. He knows no English and has no marketable work skills. “However, his benefits would not be cut under the new law until he has lived in this country for five years.”
What benefits? Why is he an example of the reason for the pall, and why is he on welfare in the first place? Didn’t he need a financial sponsor to be granted access to this country? Where are his relatives? It seems to me that is the real story.
This kind of welfare strikes me as at least a partial reason why our families now require two breadwinners to pay the taxes.
DAVID A. LEWIS
Irvine
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