Saturday, May 17, 1997

'Hunger Has a Cure' bill needs action

By Tim Griffin

Of all the Great Society programs of the 1960s, in my thinking, the food stamp, Women, Infants and Children and Head Start programs were the most successful and most worthy of maintaining. These programs have reduced the expense load of counties by ensuring children get a head start on their health and education.

They are cost-effective. Sen. Bob Dole was always a fan of the food stamp program and one of its chief architects. He considered it to be cost-effective.

While generally supporting the welfare reform measure passed last year by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton, I feel the measure has some holes in it.

As a pastor, I am people-oriented. In planning my own church program, I try to ask, "How does this affect people?" Applying this method to the welfare situation, take a woman with two or more kids on welfare.

When we say to her, "Get out and get a job," do we ask how much such a directive will affect her?

Say she goes to a burger chain place and gets a job. Will it provide health care for her and her kids? How about daycare for her children while she works?

Who will pick up the tab? Do we really think she can make it on minimum wage?

Such a person may even welcome the opportunity to make it on her own and start pulling the wagon of welfare instead of just riding in it.

Many such welfare moms, I predict will say, "Hallelulah! Free at last!"

But we need to make sure they are not let down and demoralized by this kind of change.

I think we need another public works type program in the spirit of FDR to make sure when we say to someone, "You're off welfare, but we've got something for you to do. If the private sector can't provide it, or you cannot function within the private sector (some cannot), then we've got something for you to do that will help the community (build roads, rail beds, bridges). You won't get rich off it, but you can maintain your families with it and your self-esteem as well."

Let's look at some facts. According to the Center of Public Priorities, more than 1.3 million Texas children are growing up in poverty, a number that could rise if food stamps and supplementary income are cut.

Consider more facts:

-- One quarter of the state's kids receive food stamps. About half are eligible for reduced-rate school lunches.

-- Close to half of all food stamp recipients in the state are children.

-- More than 1.2 million Texas children are Medicaid clients.

We can't leave these people in the ditch of life. Bread for the World, an interdenominational Christian organization dedicated to working on hunger-related issues, has a bill before Congress right now, H.R. 1507.

This bill has three main focuses:

-- Allow people who are seeking work to get food stamps six months out of the year.

-- Increase funding for the WIC program.

-- Restore food stamps and other aid eligibility for legal immigrants.

H.R. 1507 is entitled "Hunger Has a Cure." It has four main sponsors, two Republicans and two Democrats. Our own Congressman, Charles Stenholm, has voiced his general support of the legislation. Write him and urge him to be a co-sponsor.

I still feel we still need a massive public jobs program, but right now this "Hunger Has a Cure" bill can help stop a public disaster waiting to happen. I'll start lobbying for the public works program after we get this benefit deal for kids and working parents solved.

Let's put people first. This is biblical as all get-out. Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah - all the prophets, including the Lord Jesus Christ himself ("He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." Luke 4:18) - warned the society of their time that if we fail to do right by those on the bottom of the economic ladder, we'll suffer the judgment of God.

Social justice in the long run makes good economic and societal sense. I can't back up that view with a theory or a set of statistics. I can't prove my theory in that sense. I don't know what Alan Greenspan, head of the Federal Reserve Board, would think about my view here, but I believe it in my guts and with my whole heart.

Tim Griffin is pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Snyder.