Sounder Of Alarms

Once again, Daniel Patrick Moynihan is sounding the alarm. While other politicians talk moderately of reform, the Democratic Senator from New York wants to scrap the basic federal welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). That system, established 50 years ago to provide temporary relief for widows, was never meant to address the long-term problem of poor children in broken homes, he argues, and it certainly has proved incapable of coping with the "changed reality" of a country with 3.8 million poor, single-parent families.

As the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that deals with welfare, Moynihan has launched hearings...

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