A hand up: Government programs should help those who help themselves

With all the stories of graft and greed in the world today, sometimes it is important to point out the people who are doing what's right.

For every person sitting at home drawing a welfare check and teaching his or her children that government assistance is a way of life, there are many others who are simply struggling families trying to make their own way.

At this time of year, we meet many of them -- young people who are holding down two jobs or single moms who are working as hard as they can to provide a life for their children. And there are others, too -- grandparents who have taken on the task of raising their grandchildren although they might sometimes struggle to find the means to do so.

They are the kind of people the system is supposed to help -- the ones who are doing everything they can to lift themselves up.

And that matters as we talk about subjects like "entitlement reform" and budget deficits.

Finding a way to reach those who need benefits as a hand up -- and not as a way of life -- is critical if we are going to re-establish these programs as what they should be, temporary help for those who need it most.

That is the only fair way to handle this budget crisis before it gets so bad that there is no one left to pay the bills.

Published in Editorials on December 17, 2013 11:19 AM