Politicians’ views of motherhood appear to be changing with policy-making. The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that will overhaul the welfare system, abolishing Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a program that supports 4.7 million families and 9 million children.

The bill forces 1 million welfare recipients to go to work by the year 2000.

Although Democrats and Republicans disagree on specific issues surrounding the bill, they agree that America needs a welfare system that strongly supports work.

Welfare was originally designed to allow widowed mothers to stay home with their children.

Now, as welfare is cut, politicians argue about $8 billion set aside for child care. The question welfare program creators originally asked no longer arises: Who is the best person to care for the children?

Politicians have become hypocritical toward motherhood. While middle-class women are deemed “good moms” for leaving the work force to be at home with their children, the poor are “lazy and burdensome” if they don’t have a job.

It is clear that “work” is defined only as holding a job outside the home — at least for the poor.

It’s ironic how the need for “family values” so many conservatives express is somehow not applicable to welfare families.