Pete Domenici: “I think we ought to proceed. Part of the argument you make indicates that we have waited far too long to do something to…”

“I think we ought to proceed. Part of the argument you make indicates that we have waited far too long to do something to reform this system and reforming the system in the context I am speaking of right now. I am not necessarily speaking about the workfare approach. It is way past due for that. But essentially we have sat by for years since AFDC, a cash program, came into being decades ago. We have let it develop to the extent it has characteristics of the type you are speaking to. Obviously, poor States were given the option to have very poor programs. But if we would have told them, 'You ought to have richer programs,' they would have said, 'We can't afford any richer program.' A State like New York, which you speak of, has very, very high taxes. They have had a very, very liberal approach to taxing their people. Thus, they can put up a lot of money for welfare. Since it is a high-pay State, they decided to have a very hefty welfare program.”