Bush Calls for Measures to Aid Families

WASHINGTON —  President Bush on Tuesday embraced a range of issues dear to family and children’s advocates, including creation of a Commission on America’s Urban Families and new tax exemptions for dependent children.

In his State of the Union address, Bush said the nation must “strengthen the family--because it is the family that has the greatest bearing on our future.”

The President did not offer any specifics about the new family commission, but the White House press office said in writing that the panel is to “identify ways to keep families together, strong and sound.”

Mayors representing the League of Cities agreed on one point when they met with him recently, Bush said: “That the major cause of the problems of the cities is the dissolution of the family. They asked for this commission, and they were right to ask, because it’s time to determine what we can do to keep families together, strong and sound.”

Although cheered by the initiatives, many family and children’s advocates reacted with caution, saying they hope that Bush’s words herald a lasting commitment and do not represent a passing interest sparked by an election year.

“The President has made family issues central and that’s great,” said Edward Zigler, head of the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. “We now have a very good ally in the President.”

In his address, Bush also noted that his 1993 budget requests will include “record expenditures” for Head Start, a popular program for 4-year-olds from low-income families. The Administration intends to ask Congress for $2.8 billion for the program--a $600-million increase, the largest in the program’s history.

More immediately, the President said, he is asking Congress to raise the personal exemption by $500 per child for every family.

Zigler said the exemption is a proposal that “both sides of the aisle can endorse easily.” But he also noted that it would not benefit many needy families. “Close to 25% of all children are below the poverty line--and close to 35% for minorities,” Zigler said.

The President also proposed allowing families to deduct the interest they pay on student loans and to use money from their individual retirement accounts to pay for medical and educational expenses without the required 10% penalty for early withdrawal.

Finally, Bush encouraged the states to reform their welfare systems by vowing to make it easier for them to quickly obtain waivers of federal regulations.

“Welfare was never meant to be a lifestyle; it was never meant to be a habit; it was never supposed to be passed from generation to generation like a legacy,” Bush said.