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 n 1996, as part of
welfare reform, Congress made immigrants ineligible for food stamps
unless they had been working here for ten years. The principle of
the legislation was that immigrants who were down on their luck
should get aid — but that people shouldn't be coming here to
qualify for assistance. Since then, the rule has been loosened so
that children, senior citizens, and disabled people who came here
before 1996 can get food stamps.
Now President
Bush is proposing to make immigrants eligible for food stamps if
they've been here five years — whether or not they've worked.
The proposal is more expensive even than the proposal that left-wing
senator Tom Harkin put in the farm bill. No doubt the president's
move on food stamps is an attempt to appeal to Hispanic voters.
But it's hard to see how increasing their dependence on government
will help Republicans in the long- or even medium-term.
In any case,
the administration has moved away from the principles of welfare
reform without any Hispanic-vote rationale in a previous episode.
In July, it backed an amendment to eliminate a requirement that
unemployed public-housing tenants perform 8 hours of community service
a month. That time, the administration was to the left of Sue Kelly,
one of the most liberal Republicans in the House. During the debate,
she pointed out that President Clinton had supported this requirement.
Welfare reform
is coming up for reauthorization this year. Conservatives who want
to use the opportunity to tighten work requirements can't be heartened
by these developments. Judged by their results, work requirements
are one of the most compassionate policies the government has adopted
in years. But are they compatible with the spirit of "compassionate
conservatism"? During the campaign, Bush said that it was wrong
to think of compassion as a soft virtue. Oh really? It's always
easy to be compassionate with other people's money.
Can It Be?
A columnist for a liberal magazine concedes that conservatives are
right about a lot of things in the gun debate.
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