Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thursday, 8 Oct 1992 22:20:22 CDT
From: <U56503@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
Subject: ==> Clinton/Gore On Rewarding Work

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information in the public interest which does not imply that it
is the opinion of UIC.  Contact 75300.3115@compuserve.com for
further information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          CLINTON/GORE ON REWARDING WORK



For twelve years the Republicans in Washington have
praised the virtue of hard work, but they have hurt
hard-working Americans.

They have talked about family values,  but their
policies show they don't really value families.
They have pledged to reform welfare, but they have
no plan to put people back to work.  They have put
their elections first and people last.

Millions of Americans have paid the price.  Wages
are flat, good jobs are scarce, and poverty has
exploded.  Today almost one of every five people
who works full-time doesn't earn enough to keep his
or her family above the poverty level.  Almost one
of every five children lives in poverty -- a
million more than ten years ago.  And because of
deadbeat spouses, more than one of every five
single parents doesn't get adequate child support.

It is time to honor and reward people who work hard
and play by the rules. That means ending welfare as
we know it -- not by punishing the poor or
preaching to them, but by empowering Americans to
take care of their children and improve their
lives. No one who works full-time and has children
at home should be poor any more.  No one who can
work should be able to stay on welfare forever.

We can provide opportunity, demand responsibility,
and end welfare as we know it.  We can give every
American hope for the future.

End welfare as we know it

*    Empower people with the education, training
     and child care they need for up to two years
     so they can break the cycle of dependency:
     expand programs to help people learn to read,
     get their high school diplomas or equivalency
     degrees, and acquire specific job skills; and
     ensure that their children are cared for while
     they learn.

*    After two years, require those who can work to
     go to work, either in the private sector or in
     community service: provide placement
     assistance to help everyone find a job, and
     give the people who can't find one a dignified
     and meaningful community service job.

*    Actively promote state models that work, like
     Arkansas Project Success.

*    Guarantee affordable, quality health care to
     every American so nobody is forced to stay on
     welfare because going back to work would mean
     losing their medical insurance.

*    Sign into law the Family and Medical Leave
     Act, which President Bush has vetoed, to give
     workers the right to take twelve weeks of
     unpaid leave to care for newborn children or
     sick family members a right enjoyed by workers
     in every other advanced industrial nation.

Guarantee a working wage

*    Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit so that no
     one with a family who works full-time has to
     raise their children in poverty; make up the
     difference between a families' earnings and
     the poverty level.

*    Increase the minimum wage to keep pace with
     inflation and enforce the prevailing wage
     protections contained in the Davis-Bacon Act.

*    Create a national apprenticeship program by
     bringing business, labor and education leaders
     together to offer non college-bound students
     valuable skills training, with the promise of
     good jobs when they graduate.

*    Require every employer to spend 1.5 percent of
     payroll for continuing education and training
     and provide training to all workers, not just
     executives.

Help low-income Americans build savings

*    Enable low-income Americans to set up
     Individual Development Accounts to save for
     specific purposes such as post-secondary
     education, home ownership, retirement and
     small business start-ups.

*    Eliminate foolish regulations that discourage
     people receiving income maintenance from
     saving.  Its a travesty that people on welfare
     who want to do right by themselves and their
     families can't because the government won't
     let them.


Stimulate investment in inner city and rural areas

*    Establish a nationwide network of community
     development banks, modeled on the successful
     South Shore Bank in Chicago and Southern
     Development Bancorporation in Arkansas, to
     provide loans to low-income entrepreneurs and
     homeowners in the inner cities.  These banks
     will also provide advice and assistance to
     entrepreneurs, invest in affordable housing,
     and help mobilize private lenders.

*    Create urban enterprise zones in stagnant
     inner cities, but only for companies willing
     to take responsibility: minimize business
     taxes and federal regulations to provide
     incentives to set up shop and in return,
     require companies to make jobs for local
     residents a top priority.

*    Ease the credit crunch in our inner cities by
     passing a more progressive Community
     Reinvestment Act to prevent redlining,  and
     requiring financial institutions to invest in
     their communities.

Educate our children

*    Expand innovative parenting programs like
     Arkansas Home Instructional Program for
     Pre-School Youngsters, which helps
     disadvantaged parents work with their children
     to build an ethic of learning at home that
     benefits both.

*    Fully fund Head Start, WIC, and other
     initiatives recommended by the National
     Commission on Children that will help send our
     children to school ready to learn programs
     that save the government several dollars for
     every one it spends.

*    Make educational opportunity a reality by
     increasing Chapter One funding for schools in
     disadvantaged neighborhoods, setting tough
     standards, and helping communities open Youth
     Opportunity Centers for dropouts who need a
     second chance.

*    Give every American the right to borrow money
     for college by scrapping the existing student
     loan program and establishing a National
     Service Trust Fund.  Those who borrow from the
     fund will be able to choose how to repay the
     balance: either as a small percentage of their
     earnings over time, or by serving their
     communities for one or two years doing work
     their country needs.

Crack down on deadbeat parents

*    Report them to credit agencies, so they cant
     borrow money for themselves when they're not
     taking care of their children.

*    Use the Internal Revenue Service to help
     collect child support.

*    Start a national deadbeat databank to enable
     law enforcement officers track down negligent
     parents more easily.

*    Make it a felony to cross state lines to avoid
     paying child support.


The Record


*    Governor Clinton was a driving force in
     writing the Family Support Act of 1988, for
     which Al Gore voted, and which emphasizes
     work, child support and family benefits, and
     encourages and assists needy children and
     parents in obtaining the education, training
     and employment they need to avoid long-term
     welfare dependence.

*    Instituted a welfare-to-work program, Project
     Success, which was one of the first three such
     programs to be implemented.

*    Lifted people out of poverty by removing more
     than 370,000 low- and lower-middle income
     Arkansans from the tax rolls.

*    Eliminated taxes for 252,000 low-income
     taxpayers, and reduced taxes for another
     120,000 lower middle-income Arkansans.  More
     than one-third of all Arkansas tax payers got
     tax relief from this measure.

*    Secured private support for the establishment
     of the Southern Development Bancorporation now
     widely cited as a model in rural economic
     development.  Through affiliate companies, the
     SDB provides development capital and marketing
     and management training for small businesses
     and low-income people.

*    Established the first statewide Home
     Instructional Program for Pre-School
     Youngsters (HIPPY) in the nation.  HIPPY
     teaches parents how to teach their children to
     read and similar programs have been
     established in other states around the nation.

*    Raised standards for licensing child care
     centers, hired more state inspectors to insure
     that those standards are enforced, established
     a training fund to train child care workers,
     and created a loan guarantee fund to support
     the development of additional child care
     centers.

*    Sharply increased funding for education and
     reformed schools by requiring students,
     teachers, and schools to meet tough standards;
     establishing a tough new curriculum; improving
     parental involvement and raising teacher
     salaries.  Under a new program, students who
     drop out of school for no good reason lose
     their drivers licenses.

*    Guided Arkansas to the highest high school
     graduation rate in the region; increased the
     college-going rate from 38.2 in 1982 to 51.3
     in 1991; and increased scoring on standardized
     tests.

*    Led Arkansas Child Support Enforcement Unit in
     sharply increased collections from deadbeat
     parents -- $41 million in 1991.  The Unit has
     received national recognition.

*    Senator Gore cosponsored the Family and
     Medical Leave Act.

*    Voted to expand appropriations for Head Start,
     child support enforcement, family violence
     prevention, and Pell Grants.

*    Voted for the Workplace Fairness Act to ban
     permanent replacement of striking workers and
     preserve the collective bargaining process.

*    Voted for Unemployment Compensation which
     provides an additional 13 weeks of extended
     benefits to unemployed workers.

*    Cosponsored the Child Welfare and Preventive
     Services Act which amends the titles of the
     Social Security Act to establish innovative
     child welfare and family support services in
     order to strengthen families.
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton