Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Wed, Apr 15 1992 Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 05:42:41 EDT Message-ID: 04-15 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update April 15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Wednesday morning in USA TODAY: Welfare; Travel; Defense. TODAY'S DEBATE - WELFARE: USA TODAY'S OPINION: President Bush, following up his State of the Union pledge to "reform" welfare, has let Wisconsin bend federal rules to reward teen welfare mothers who marry and penalize those who have more kids. He may have meant only to join an election-year chorus. He also may get more than he bargained for. Listen to what Lansing counselor Shirley Johns tells the poor in Michigan, which just ended its main welfare program: "Commit a simple larceny" and get caught. Jail at least "is a roof over their head." That's not negligible. Despite the shibboleths, welfare isn't about greed and abuse run rampant. It's about living scared, scraping by, about your kids going to school hungry, going to sleep cold. In Wisconsin, for instance, a single woman with two children gets $517 to live on each month; with three children, $617. Been to a supermarket lately? A kids' shoe store? Yet under the plan to be tested in Milwaukee and elsewhere, she'd have to get by on $479 no matter how many children she had to support. ... One in five children is growing up in poverty. Many of them are on welfare. None can vote. They deserve our protection, not our bile. Experiment to better the system, certainly, but do it with caution -and above all, with compassion. OTHER VIEW: PETER B. GEMMA JR., an Arlington, Va., writer and former contributing editor to Conservative Digest: Taxpayers have long complained about the costly, unfair and inefficient welfare system. Now, as progressive incentives are being implemented across the country to reduce the tax burden and make the system more responsible, wouldn't you know, they are back. They are the whiny voices of the '60s who still assert that more government spending is always better. Gov. Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin has found a sensitive balance between the rights of taxpayers who seek needed relief and those unfortunates in society who genuinely require public assistance. His nationally recognized and timely reforms are cost-efficient and contain incentives for individuals to wean themselves off the public dole. New Jersey, California, Ohio and other states have enacted similar cost-cutting measures aimed at helping the truly needy while weeding out con artists and the able-bodied but welfare-addicted. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON AIR-FARE DISCOUNTS AFFECTING TRAVEL: GAITHERSBURG, Md., Cheri L. Farha, 30, public rel. consultant: It would depend on what the absolutely lowest fares are. What it sounds like they have been reduced to is still higher than a year or two ago, when you could go to Europe for $300 or the Midwest for $160. It would be a case-by-case basis whether it would affect my travel plans. SPEARFISH, S.D., Leon Miller, 64, retired teacher: Sure would, but they shouldn't lower their prices so it becomes an absolute burden on them. Here, near South Fork, we only have one or two planes a day. Our little trunk lines are really strapped for money. I want them to make a reasonable profit and stay in business. OMAHA, Neb., Vickey Thayer, 44, VP, human resources: The new fares have made us more interested. Unfortunately, we had already booked our vacation flights for this summer, so we won't be able to take advantage of the fares. If we could get away for a weekend, we'd definitely consider them. MADISON, Ga., John Hood, 24, office manager: I believe discounts would affect my travel. I'd be more willing to take a trip now if it's cheaper than before. I haven't flown in several years because the prices have been so high, so this might be an opportunity to do so. LANSING, Mich., LaTina Ware, 27, AIDS educator: Discounts will be good for business people who travel a lot. The cheaper rates make it a lot easier for them to take care of business. It's going to make a difference for middle-income families being able to take vacations. It will for me. TOPIC - DEFENSE CUTS: CHRISTOPHER JEHN, the Defense Department's assistant secretary for management and personnel, was interviewed by USA TODAY's Sharon Shahid about how the military is cutting back in the post-Cold War era. WITH THE COLD WAR OVER, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO THE SOLDIERS? When our reduction is completed, 500,000 fewer men and women will be in uniform than in 1989. But that doesn't mean 500,000 people are being laid off. Each year, several hundred thousand military personnel leave the military under normal circumstances - retirements, ending enlistment periods. And we're also recruiting 25%-30% fewer than we were three years ago. ARE YOU ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO GET OUT? We've instituted a number of programs to encourage more people to leave, such as financial incentives. (5,000 people will be severed involuntarily this year, and another 10,000 will face mandatory retirement, if current projections of the people accepting voluntary separation prove correct.) WHICH VOLUNTARY SEPARATION PLANS ARE SOLDIERS OPTING FOR? More people are taking the lump sum. Most have been more junior personnel, so if they want to run a business or buy a house or finance their children's educations, they're likely to take the lump sum. Issues & Debate Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM