'Contract on children:' Seniors and Girl Scouts line up against cuts

by Tim Wheeler

This article was reprinted from the February 17, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

President Clinton and Congress received sharply worded messages last week demanding that they reject the National Governors" Association (NGA) plan to cut or terminate Medicaid and welfare over the next seven years. The governors" proposals are expected to be presented to Congress in early March.

Children"s Defense Fund (CDF) President Marian Wright Edelman issued a call for mass participation in a "Day of Commitment" in Washington June 1 to challenge Congress" savage cutbacks in programs that benefit children. Speaking at the CDF"s annual convention in Charlotte, N.C., Edelman said the event, rallying under the banner "Stand for Children," has already won endorsement from more than 500 organizations.

Groups as diverse as the Girl Scouts and the American Association of Retired Persons are among the organizations that have pledged their support. Edelman told the convention that the National Governors" Association plan will leave children "poorer, hungrier, sicker, and at greater risk of abuse and neglect."

CDF, she added, "urges the Congress and the President to reject these flawed anti-child proposals. No proposal that leaves children worse off rather than better off should become the law of the land."

On Feb. 13, a coalition of civil rights groups released the text of a letter sent to Congressional leaders blasting the "states" rights" philosophy of the governors" plans. Wade Henderson, director of the Washington office of the NAACP, said, "Many African Americans remember that "states" rights" were code words for the states" denial of basic civil rights. We are concerned that this history not return in the context of welfare reform."

Joining the NAACP in denouncing the NGA plan were the National Council of Negro Women, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, and the Congress of Black Churches. They lashed the governors for proposing to terminate the federal guarantee of cash assistance to poor children in times of need, for permitting states to slash their own welfare spending by 25 percent, and for proposing to cut food stamp funding by $25 billion. They pointed out that the governors propose that states receive block grants for foster care and adoption assistance even though child welfare agencies in 22 states have been placed under court supervision for failing to provide adequate protection for children.

In their letter the coalition said the NGA plan moves the nation "further away" from genuine welfare reform. The letter warned that African American children will be disproportionately harmed by dismantling the federal safety net. Henderson said the "Coalition of Conscience" will lobby Congress and the White House to reject the governors" plans.

The labor-backed National Council of Senior Citizens sent a letter to Clinton Feb. 8 denouncing the governors" bipartisan scheme which was approved unanimously Feb. 5. The plan, said the letter signed by executive director Steve Protulis, will "place millions of Americans at great risk."

Protulis zeroed in on the slick demagogy of the Republican and Democratic governors in selling their package as a "compromise." Handing discretion to the states on the "amount, duration and scope of services" means a "state could decide it would only pay for five visits to a primary care physician or six months of nursing home coverage," he said scornfully.

Protulis added that limiting senior coverage to those who qualify for Supplemental Security Income means that "many people who are currently eligible for a Medicaid would be disqualified" and leaves many people "wondering if their local legislature would alter or end their coverage." He said the governors" plan would also cut coverage for low income children.

Another example of the double talk in the governors" package, Protulis said, is its promise that nursing home standards will be preserved. "Leaving federal nursing home standards in place while ceding to the states their enforcement is simply leaving a facade in place while gutting the building behind it," the NCSC official wrote. Protulis urged Clinton "to make a strong statement disavowing these and other retreats from standards of decency and equity."

In a telephone interview, Patrick Burns, NCSC communications director criticized block grants to the states as a solution to welfare "reform." "Poor states have a long history of treating the poor very poorly. The governors" plan is nothing but a meat ax attack on welfare. Children should not be casualties in the budget wars," Burns said.

Seattle Mayor Norman Rice, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, charged that the governors" plan "falls far short" of protecting the needs of children. Arnold Bennett, spokesperson for Families USA, said, "Don"t be hoodwinked by the governors" empty Medicaid guarantee. Nobody, neither seniors in nursing homes nor children in hospitals, has any enforceable guarantee or real protection."

The Children"s Defense Fund has urged people to telephone the White House and tell President Clinton "the governors" proposals hurt children and you want him to reject them. Tell him not to sign any Medicaid or welfare "reform" bill that makes more children poor, sick, and hungry." The White House telephone number is (202) 456-1111.

-Fred Gaboury contributed to this article.