Equal Treatment

WHEN IT COMES to welfare, not all poor people are considered equal. Depending on the state in which they live, poor families with the same number of children receive welfare payments that vary by as much as several hundred dollars a year. But finally, after two years of paring down President Carter's extensive welfare reform package, the House last week took a small but welcomed first step to alleviate the inequalities of our present, non-federalized welfare system.

The House approved a bill last Thusday that guarantees a national minimum welfare payment to poor families with children. Current laws allow the states to pay as much or as little as they choose to poor families with children. Current laws allow the states to pay as much or as little as they choose to poor families. As a result, some states like New York provide far more assistance than other states. Such states are unfairly overburdened with payments to citizens on welfare.

The House bill improves on the present system by requiring every state after Oct. 1, 1981 to provide welfare for two-parent families without income 65 per cent of the Census Bureau's official minimum subsistence level. That amounts to about $4650 a year for a family of four in 1979 dollars. The new rule would raise the payments to about 800,000 families in 13 states, mainly in the South and Southwest. Under present welfare rules, only single-parent families with dependent children receive aid, a system that encourages the break-up of marriages, some experts say. The House bill also gives tax credits to the working poor, a system that encourages poor people to find or hold onto jobs. The present system does not provide such tax credits.

THE BILL PASSED the House by a narrow majority, and its fate in the Senate is at best uncertain. Russell B. Long (D-La.), chairman of the finance committee, which will soon begin hearings on the bill, has opposed similar legislation in the past. He argues that poor people should find work of any kind before receiving governmental assistance. But in a time of high unemployment--especially among minorities, women and teenagers--Long's objection is impractical.

Although the House bill does not go far enough, it is at least a small step toward a complete overhaul of the welfare system toward the establishment of national standards for aiding the poor. We urge Long and the rest of the Senate, therefore, to reduce the inequalities of our current welfare system by passing the guaranteed minimum income bill.