Bill Clinton: “But you do if you want everybody to be like them. That is, let me--remember what I said all along, from the day I got…”

“But you do if you want everybody to be like them. That is, let me--remember what I said all along, from the day I got here and we started these welfare reform experiments over 4 years ago, I said all along, look, the system we have works fine for about 40 to 45 percent of the people because they are like these women. And nearly everybody on welfare wants to get off, wants to be self-supporting, wants to be an independent member of society, would rather pay taxes than draw from the public treasury. But the system we have--the way it works, especially for people with very young children made it actually--it was a disincentive for a lot of people to get off welfare. So all we tried to do is to create a set of circumstances now where 100 percent of the able-bodied people on welfare will be able to do what these two women have done on their own under the old system. If we didn't do anything, about 4 in 10 people on welfare would continue to be on a while, get the help they need, get right off, and go on with their lives. What we're trying to do is to get to the other 60 percent. That's what welfare reform is all about. And the reason we had--let me remind you--the reason we had the biggest drop ever in the last 4 years, according to a study done by Janet Yellen and the Council of Economic Advisers. They say about a third of the drop in the welfare rolls was due directly to specific welfare reform efforts. And a quarter of the drop was due to other efforts like the 50 percent increase in child support collections. And a little over 40 percent was due to the improvement in the economy. And that corresponds with a little over 40 percent who always do--who did well under the old welfare system. So we're working on the other 60 percent. But the other 60 percent had become a significant problem for America because you were having generational dependence on welfare. Webster Hubbell”