Should welfare families get more money from taxpayers every time they have another child?

Should illegal aliens in Minnesota get free health care, paid for entirely by state taxpayers?

These are questions Gov. Tim Pawlenty and House Republicans asked when developing our welfare reform plan this past session. Our plan, almost all of which was passed into law, makes long overdue, common-sense changes to Minnesota’s exceedingly generous welfare system. And the party-line votes on this issue show the clear difference between Republicans and Democrats.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Minnesota has been the third-worst state in the nation in moving people from welfare to financial independence. From 1993 to 2001, welfare caseloads across the country were reduced by an average of 62.5 percent. Over that same time period, Minnesota’s welfare roles went down just 39.9 percent.

While other states were taking a &uot;tough-love&uot; approach to welfare reform, Minnesota Democrats stubbornly refused to allow us to shed our reputation as being the nation’s preeminent welfare state.

Even last year, when the first group of welfare recipients was about to reach the five-year time limit called for by the 1996 federal welfare reform law, DFL leaders said that five years wasn’t enough time, and tried to push back the time limit for all recipients another year. Dismantling welfare reform was then, and still is today, a primary goal for Democrats across our state.

Like many Minnesotans, Republicans believe that our state’s generous welfare system has turned us into a magnet for people seeking benefits. Make no mistake, we support helping those who need a temporary &uot;hand-up.&uot; But permanently doling out generous welfare benefits to people destroys their work ethic and, over time, makes them dependent on government. And there’s no doubt about it: people move to Minnesota to take advantage of our public assistance programs.

To correct this maddening injustice to Minnesota taxpayers, this year Gov. Pawlenty and Republican legislators successfully overhauled our welfare system. Initiatives that emphasize the importance of work, personal responsibility and just plain old common-sense were signed into law, including:

-A &uot;family cap&uot; so cash payments made to welfare families no longer automatically increase every time they have another child. Employers don’t automatically increase an employee’s paycheck when he or she has another child, so why should government?

-The elimination of free, taxpayer-subsidized health care for illegal aliens (except for pregnant women).

-Imposition of 100 percent sanctions for people who persistently fail to abide by the state’s welfare rules.

-A diversionary work program designed to help people avoid welfare altogether. Before most people enroll in welfare, they’ll be provided with all forms of assistance &045; except cash payments &045; and be required to aggressively search for, gain and retain employment for four months.

-A welfare-fraud prevention provision limiting the situations in which a person can substitute missing documentation when determining welfare eligibility and reassessment. Previously, a signed statement from a welfare applicant or recipient could replace any missing documentation.

-More aggressive employment plans to help people achieve financial independence.

-Permission for the Pawlenty Administration to seek a federal government waiver to prohibit people on welfare from spending their food assistance payments on junk food.

-Provisions to reduce fraud in Minnesota’s generous taxpayer-subsidized child care programs.

In a May 11 St. Paul Pioneer Press article (Progressives mobilizing post-Wellstone: GOP ascent energizes the left), Shawn Otto &045; the husband and campaign manager of DFL state Rep. Rebecca Otto &045; said that voters perceive the DFL as the party of &uot;welfare, taxes, codependence and irresponsibility.&uot;

Well, DFLers in St. Paul did a great job reinforcing that perception this past session. Not one single House Democrat, including Rep. Otto, voted for the welfare reform provisions passed this year. And in the Senate, just three Democrats voted for welfare reform, not because they supported it, but because putting up three votes was part of the deal Senate DFLers accepted to end the session.

(Sviggum, R-Kenyon, is speaker of the Minnesota House.

Editor’s note: Tony Trow, who writes a Monday column for the Tribune, is on vacation.)