4
Thursday, November 17, 1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIEWPOINT
We need welfare reform that works for children
It is now a common assumption that one of the only areas of compromise between the newly realigned Congress and the Clinton administration will be on the issue of welfare.
Both the president and the future Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, have proposed welfare reform plans. The problem is that neither the Clinton plan nor the Gingrich plan is acceptable because neither plan properly addresses the crucial issues of child care and health care.
Clinton's plan is insufficient, with not enough child care and no provision for health care.
Gingrich's plan is effectively a death sentence for welfare children because it makes no provision for child or health care.
Both plans ignore the reality that the majority of AFDC recipients are children.
One of the major reasons that people stay on the dole is that no one will be available to take care of their children when they go back to work.
Even Clinton's plan, which proposes some funding for child care, is grossly insufficient. First, it only provides care for up to one year after the recipient has gone back to work at what will likely be a minimum wage job.
Gingrich's proposal is asinine. By allowing states to abolish aid to children of mothers younger than 21 and building orphanages instead, this plan turns a blind eye on the children by throwing their parents into the streets. It is hypocritical and insulting to decry government inefficiency and then to suggest that the government is a better parent just because the biological parent can't find a job.
WELFARE REFORM Child, health care necessary
The only solution is a guarantee, on a sliding scale, of child care for anyone who is working but falls below the income range that would provide basic necessities and pay for minimal child care. Until the high costs of child care can be met with some effectiveness by a minimum wage job, the problem will remain.
Up to a quarter of welfare recipients are on welfare because they cannot afford health care. It is wrong to require that people get a job that does not provide health care or enough money to be able to afford it.
One short-term solution is to divorce Medicaid from AFDC, Supplemental Security Income or any other type of welfare. This way, parents will be able to go back to work without having to worry about their own health or their children's health.
Of course, it is only a temporary solution to the long-term health care crisis, but it is designed to eliminate the incentives for staying on welfare.
Although Clinton has pointed out that no welfare proposal is complete without a comprehensive health-care plan, his proposal is not tied to one, and now there is a possibility that his plan, or a similar one, will be enacted without any change in the health care system.
In its zeal to make people accountable for themselves, Gingrich'splan completely denies the relationship between welfare and health care, as well as child care. In doing so, it denies reality. Enacting the plan would leave these people in the lurch.
Ostensibly, a welfare reform compromise between the Democrats and the Republicans is imminent. But real, effective reform does not seem to be in sight.
ARTHUR T. COLUMNIS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO
Editor
JEN CARR Business manager
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
News ... Sara Bennett
Editorial ... Donella Heanne
Campus ... Mark Martin
Sports ... Brian James
Photo ... Daron Bennett
Mellissa Lacey
Featuries ... Traet Carl
Planning Editor ... Susan White
Design ... Nathan Musse
Asistant to the editor .. Robbie Johnson
Editors
Business Staff
Campus mgr ...Mark Masto
Regional mgr ...Laura Guth
National mgr ...Mark Masto
Coop mgr ...Ellibon Gibson
Special Sections mgr ..Jen Perren
Production mgr ..Holly Boren
...Regan Overy
Marketing director ..Alan Stiglic
Creative director ..Dan Gler
Classified mgr ..Heather Niehaus
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Chicago Mail Processing Program must include:
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom. 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall
Much already has been written and said about the Republican avalanche that roared down the mountain last election day.
Forget what the experts say. It's pompous hooey wrapped up in well-spun labels like "electrate disenfranchisement" and "disaffected voter backlash."
Voters want to return to the fast lane
When liberal political pervade, we tend to talk a lot. We sit around in really comfortable furniture and wallow in our collective ineffectiveness. We dress casually and do goofy things with our hair. We smoke joints, drop acid, and drink poor-quality Scotch to ease the disappointment of another period of high hopes running headlong into "the establishment."
We're restless with the way liberal politics affect the way we party, so we have spoken. See, we don't elect politicians, we elect lifestyle.
This election is just the beginning of the semi-generational changing of the guard.
It's a mellow time. Too many hours in the day. Everyone is sensitive to each other's needs and we like the
GUEST COLUMNIST
There is something out there for me and I'm going to get it. I don't care if somebody else loses because I deserve to win. Hey, I'm working harder than the other guy, and my leaders say I'm entitled to keep what I can get.
idea of sharing and openness. You're entitled, man, that's what our leaders are saving.
JOHN MARTIN
Look back at the last few decades. The seventies (I'm truly old enough to remember) were a haze of groovy duds and crashed out duudes on bean-bag chairs trying to keep their mutton chops and doobie ash out of the bean dip.
Fast forward to the early nineties and peace sign-wearing hipsters slouching on futons and leaning over the guacamole dip trying to find their acid tabs without dipping their goatees in the dip.
When conservative politics become en vogue, we tend to act. It's time to go out and get it.
and if i spend any more time talking to you, I'm going to miss that stock tip from the well-dressed woman with thevodka martini.
We don't have time to sit around. We are mobile. We have nice cars and are well-groomed. Move to a big house with big expensive things and take expensive drugs. Do some shots, smoke some crack and take some speed. We can't get enough.
The only change from the seventies to the early nineties was that we traded in lava lamps for those wacky 3-D paintings where you have to squint to see the picture.
No time to be sensitive to much of anything except my bank account,
The eighties and (rumor has it) the
fifties gave us more tempo.
Clean-cut, perky go-getters were looking to network and get on the inside track to an economic nivrana. A well-coiffed babe could do a line off the company bathroom vanity while balancing last quarter's sales figures in her head. She could afford the rehab.
We're restless. It's time to change our attitude and how we party.
Pataki or Cuomo? Cuomo just wasn't getting me up. I was guilty and inert. This other guy is going to let me feel like I can get jerked again.
Jeff MacNellv / KANSAN
We live in a time of so many amazing high-tech inventions. And I have just happened upon one of the most useful products ever seen.
Toenail clippers save time, effort and felines
I hate to cut my toenails. It is a stressful, acrobatic bachre, involving bending, grunting and hoisting a stubborn leg onto a sink.
I looked down and was shocked to find that I had impaled the cat on my uncommonly long nail.
I sometimes go long periods of time without clipping my nails.
And recently I was walking barefoot through my home when I heard a terrible yowling.
Deciding it would be bad medical practice to remove the wounded cat from my toenail, I hopped on one foot to the car and raced to an animal clinic. It wasn't an easy drive with a leg sticking out the window, so as not to dislodge the cat.
Then he chuckled and said: "The same thing happened to me once, except it was a tiny in-law instead of a cat. But since I discovered Easy Hold by Trim, the world's best tenefail clipper, it is no longer a problem. I highly recommend it."
MIKE ROYKO
"You handled it just right," the veterinarian said as he removed the angry creature, stitched its wound and declared it healthy.
Americans didn't vote themselves different leaders this November, they just signaled how they want to deal with their frustrations and anxieties. The mellow high is gone (again), and we want to revit it up (again).
It is sharp and powerful and has clever thumb and finger grips that prevent slipping. Through extra leverage, it requires so little strength that even an arthritic should be able to hack through monstrous nails.
Of course. There are an estimated 2.5 billion toes in this country. And around the world, I can't even comprehend such a number.
And that's how I bought my own Easy Hold toenail clipper at the corner drug store. A wonderful device that makes clipping one's toenails almost a pleasure.
A call to the University of Mississippi put us in touch with the man who invented the amazing Easy Hold — the widely unknown Eric "Ric" Rommerdale, 52, a retired Navy lab technician who now runs lab technology at the university's School of Dentistry.
"You really want to talk about this?" he asked.
Just think how good the entrepreneurse down in Colombia will feel when we put our new Senate majority leader in the White House.
"Well, it isn't that glamorous. In about 1988, I was getting gas at one of those stop-and-go places that have soda pop and stuff, and I saw this old fella trying to cut his nails. But the thing kept slipping out of his hand. He said: 'I wish someone'd come up with something that'd help me hold onto these things.'"
"So I went home and played around with the idea in my workshop. And I finally came up with this thing. I had friends try it, and everybody seemed to like it."
He called the W.E. Bassett Co., and the president came to see him, looked at his invention and asked him to redo his entire line of implements — scissors, tweezers and, of course, nail clippers.
The rest is toenail history.
"I've done a lot of things," Mr. Rommerdale says, "but I guess this is what I'll be remembered for."
By me, that's for sure. And my cat,
too.
Mike Rykoji is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
John Martin is a Lawrence first-year law student.
KATHY KIPP
Roommate cola wars are distressing
There have been many great debates in the world, ranging from what to do about the national deficit to what shoes go with what belt. Perhaps the greatest debate is the one I am partaking in every time I set foot inside the grocery store. Should we buy Coke or Pepsi?
In our apartment, there is not a noncola drinker. There is one Coke drinker, one Pepsi drinker and me, the largest consumer of carbonated beverages, I, since I never have an opinion, regularly switch loyalty.
Usually we rotate weeks, Coke one week and Pepsi the next, trying to have the best of both worlds, but sometimes... Well, let's say that we find that we have a coupon for one or the other, or one brand happens to be on sale. Well, then being self-respecting broke college students, that's the brand we buy. According to my Pepsi-drinking roommate, though, Coke is the only brand ever on sale, since this town is biased against Pepsi. A fact we are bound to hear one too many times that particular week.
Another piece of this dilemma is that my Coke-drinking roommate hardly ever touches the stuff. Sure, she'll have a few cans during the week, but the majority of the Coke is consumed by my Pepsi-drinking roommate and myself. This leads one to believe that each week should be Pepsi week with a supplementary two liter of Coke.
You would think that this would be the logical solution to the problem, but, no, that would be too easy and too obvious. Coke wouldn't be getting a fair representation in the house. And besides, I think my roommates rather enjoy bickering about what will be the beverage of the week.
So, this week is Pepsi week. I can't say I am happy or distressed. What I will say, though, is that a Dr. Pepper never sounded so good.
HUBIE
Kathy Kipn in a Woolridge, Ill., sophomore in English.
By Greg Hardin