Corporate Welfare Needs a Work Ethic

Re “Bush Proposes ‘Ethic of Work’ in Welfare Plan,” Feb. 27: Now that President Bush has supported more stringent work requirements for welfare recipients, how about similar controls and limitations on corporate welfare, which his administration has done more to subsidize than any previous administration in American history?

Sadly, the corporate hogs continue to gorge themselves freely at the public trough while the less fortunate members of society are required to work before they can eat--even in a recessionary economy with dwindling employment opportunities.

This country would be a better place if George W. had experienced the abject fear and terror of a child whose parents have just told him they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. If so, he would never allow the corporate welfare feeding frenzy to continue unabated while imposing an impossible work requirement on the truly destitute and needy.

Dennis M. Clausen

Escondido

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Why not just round up all the unmarried citizens receiving welfare and let the Rev. Sun Myung Moon [head of the South Korea-based Unification Church] marry them in a mass ceremony? After it’s over (shouldn’t take more than five or six minutes), everyone can have a champagne toast and then all go clean a few toilets together. Voila, poverty will be ended, and the welfare state will no longer be needed.

Ed Coonce

Encinitas