THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9412100013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 29 lines
Republican Party leader Newt Gingrich, author of the Contract With America, proposes that the government take children from welfare mothers and place them in orphanages.
Is he serious, or is this another gimmick to get him where he wants to go?
I don't see how this idea would benefit taxpayers. Aid to Dependent Children amounts to about 1 percent of the taxes I pay. What percentage would go toward financing a giant bureaucracy to build orphanages, hire people to work in, manage and maintain them, etc.?
Gingrich is telling people who don't like his idea to rent the movie ``Boys Town.'' I don't think Father Flanagan took in children whom the government took away from their mothers but instead boys who were troubled.
By the way, the dictionary defines orphans as children whose parents are dead. What are Gingrich's plans for the welfare mothers?
ALFRED CUNNINGHAM
Virginia Beach, Dec. 7, 1994 by CNB