America's current welfare system discourages people from seeking work, contributes to the breakup of families and is in desperate need of reform, U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) said last night at a Harvard Law School Forum.

Speaking before an audience of 60 at Austin Hall, Mikulski advocated a complete overhaul of the welfare system and outlined the proposal that Senate Democrats hope to advance this summer.

"If Democrats could show we're progressive, we could take these programs and put them to work," Mikulski said. "Not everything we have done in [the past] has utility today."

Any reform package, Mikulski said, must include three provisions: job training, new tax incentives and an individualized plan for families with special circumstances. There must also be an emphasis on long-term economic growth, she said.

"We want to make sure welfare is not a way of life but a way to a better life," said Mikulski, the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Administration, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies.

The current system, she said, makes it more profitable for the poor to receive public aid then to find employment because recipients for the poor to receive public aid than to find employment because recipients lose their nutrition, Medicaid and housing subsidies as their incomes rise.

"If you step into work, it's like jumping off a cliff...because you lose your whole benefit package," Mikulski said.

The present welfare program also disrupts families because they prohibit women from receiving public assistance if their husbands live with them, she said.

"Republicans talk about family values, but [welfare rules] push them out of the picture," she said.

Additionally, the system penalizes families who must travel to work, Mikulski said, because it considers ,the family car an asset rather than a necessityfor employment.

"We need individual plans, not blanketformulas, to help people get off welfare," saidMikulski, who holds a master's degree in socialwork.

Mikulski said the Democratic reform packagewould extend Medicaid and childcare benefits toadults who enter the workforce. It would alsopermit fathers to live with their families withouta loss of benefits.

As a result, people will not be discouragedfrom seeking employment and families will bepreserved, she said.

"You cannot do welfare on the cheap," Mikulskisaid. "We must change the cliff effect, move menback into the house and develop individual jobs."

Mikulski added, however, that she would protectthe middle-class from any increased taxes to fundthe welfare proposal she detailed.

"The middle-class has no more to give,"Mikulski said. "We gotta get it from those who gotit.