THE SUBVERSION OF WELFARE REFORM
The Subversion of Welfare Reform The single greatest legislative achievement of the much-maligned 104th Congress was welfare reform. The new law ends the federal welfare entitlement for single...
...In effect, it would forbid hiring welfare workers for any job that some government employee is doing, thus encouraging the proliferation of bogus make-work jobs...
...Minge Goes To Washington Every two years, new members of Congress arrive on Capitol Hill portraying themselves as modern-day replicas of the famous "Mr...
...Well, corn-growers can't get enough of this subsidy, and the most potent pressure group in his rural district is—you guessed it—the farm lobby...
...But after Norman fanned his drive into the right rough, he marched over to the starter, jabbed his finger in his chest, and screamed at him for several minutes, threatening to complain to the tournament chairman (which he did) and never to return to the Kemper...
...The statement bore the rather grand headline "The Mobutu I Knew...
...Even in Washington, where shameless self-justification is a highly valued skill, von Kloberg's memo stands as a masterpiece of the art...
...So why does a deficit hawk like Minge support the ethanol tax break...
...And after putting out for birdie, he did it again (perhaps fearing that his fan had missed it...
...Norman raised his middle finger to him...
...Another amendment, pushed by organized labor, declares welfare recipients can only fill jobs that don't interfere with the duties, work rules, or "promotional opportunities" of existing (read: unionized) government workers...
...chum is shark bait...
...Last month, one of these characters, Rep...
...Von Kloberg is "lobbyist to the damned," with a client list that has included Samuel K. Doe of Liberia, Saddam Hussein, and Romania's Ceausescu...
...Newt Gingrich might want to intervene now before any more damage is done to his party's signal legislative achievement...
...The President's Chum Greg Norman, the high-flying Australian golf star, blew in to Washington recently for a two-week stay, trailing obnoxiousness and venom behind him...
...Actually, the federal government's General Accounting Office recently concluded that the benefits of the ethanol tax break are minimal—leaving aside the broader question of whether such federal subsidies are appropriate...
...Minge moaned that "an elimination of this sound tax policy is short-sighted and would result in Congress revoking its commitment to American agriculture...
...In fact, if you answered (b), you're just like Edward J. von Kloberg III, chairman of the impressively named Washington World Group, Ltd...
...He was described as having "a single-minded focus on cutting the deficit" and was praised for possessing a "stubborn integrity" that has led him "to challenge budgetary sacred cows...
...Yet at the U.S...
...Let liberals defend soft welfare policies...
...Suddenly the tyrant is in the world's headlines...
...If you answered (b), you're a Washington lobbyist...
...Von Kloberg dismisses such epithets as mere "political correctness" and goes on to extol the kleptocrat's "anti-Marxism" and friendly relations with the United States...
...These changes have only been approved at the committee level, which leaves time for sanity to return on the House floor...
...It's been tried already, and it doesn't work very well...
...He uses his fist...
...Translation: "The Mobutu Who Hired Me as His Washington Flack During the 1980s...
...If you answered (a), you're a normal person...
...Last week, Minge wrote an article for the Capitol Hill newspaper the Hill, in which he called for preserving one of the best examples of corporate welfare you can find: the tax break—that is, subsidy—for the ethanol industry...
...On the 16th hole, a fan of Norman's called out some encouragement to him: "Chum's in the water...
...Hats off to Minge for attending to his local interest groups and getting praised for statesmanship in the Journal...
...Mobutu was indeed a para-site—and also a thug, a butcher, and a running dog generally...
...I've watched what President Clinton does when he's mad...
...He left the gentleman—a club volunteer—bewildered and shaken...
...At the Kemper Open, held in suburban Maryland, the starter on the first tee introduced him thus: "Of all the golfers in the world, the following player is number one...
...Out on the course, it got worse...
...But there's little reason for optimism...
...Unless, of course, these cows happen to benefit his constituents...
...Then he explains all the good work he did as flack for Mobutu's regime...
...Last week, quite unbidden, von Kloberg faxed around town a statement taking up the cause of ex-President Mobutu of ex-Zaire...
...Most of them are not, of course, and in this case the tough original reforms were even politically popular...
...David Minge, a Minnesota Democrat elected in 1992, was profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal...
...But last week, two House committees approved an array of measures that would undermine the work requirement...
...But if he invites you over to his house to see his trophies, I'd advise you to respectfully decline...
...One amendment allows states to meet the "work" requirement by putting recipients in a classroom for training...
...They deserve each other...
...Republicans have been spooked by the charge that they're a bunch of misanthropes...
...Most people will point their finger when they get angry...
...Norman's nickname is "The Great White Shark...
...The president invited him into the Oval Office for a little chat—just two buds who flout the rules and live merrily on...
...A starter at a PGA tournament will sometimes use a light remark like this to make things more interesting for the gallery...
...And von Kloberg, who happily took the parasite's money and even now defends him, offers a perfect example of why "Washington lobbyist" has become an epithet all its own...
...Smith" who went to Washington and cleaned up its crooked ways...
...These gestures were witnessed—and verified—by numerous bystanders, including reporters...
...Watch him, and you'll see what I mean...
...The new law ends the federal welfare entitlement for single mothers and requires states to get an increasing percentage of their welfare recipients to work...
...Von Kloberg protests the "wave of criticism of the ousted president—who is widely described as a 'parasite,' a 'kleptocrat,' and a 'brutal dictator.'" Mobutu, a parasite...
...Would you (a) try to keep quiet about the whole thing, or (b) issue a press release...
...Open the next week, Norman lied about it, saying that he "was going to give the guy the finger, but I thought about it and then just went up with the fist...
...If these two provisions are applied to welfare reform," says neoliberal welfare analyst Mickey Kaus, "then the liberals and the unions will have succeeded in substantially crippling the Republican effort to put welfare recipients to work...
...Norman did some more watching of Clinton at the White House, where he took a tour...
...Wherever could people have gotten that idea...
...Mobutu's Man Let's say you were somehow involved with a bloodthirsty tyrant who had brought down upon his country a reign of corruption and terror...
...This was a typical inside Washington joke, an allusion to President Clinton's having twisted his ankle on a visit to Norman's Florida estate earlier this year...
Vol. 2 • June 1997 • No. 40
