Bill Clinton: “That's a wonderful question. First of all, one of the biggest problems we've got with deadbeat dads is--sometimes…”

“That's a wonderful question. First of all, one of the biggest problems we've got with deadbeat dads is--sometimes deadbeat moms, but usually deadbeat dads--is the ability to cross the State line and not have enforcement across State lines. So a big part of our welfare reform program is going to be to stiffen enforcement of child support across State lines and to try, whenever possible, just to have an automatic withholding from people's checks once they start missing their child support payments, even if they live in another State, and to have uniform enforcement. That will have a dramatic impact. Now, in many cases where there was not a marriage in the first place, we're going to have to have some help from the mothers in identifying the fathers. But in every case where we can, in my opinion, once people start to miss their child support, I think you just ought to have automatic withholding. I don't think people should be able to avoid the responsibility for their children just because they're not in the homes raising them. And I think the more automatic, the quicker it can be, the less legal hassle, the less going to court, the fewer lawyers, the fewer pleading with the judges, the more it's just an automatic system, the better off we are. And that is what we're going to work toward as a part of comprehensive welfare reform. I can tell all of you that your bills as taxpayers to support women and children on public assistance would be much lower if we had a tougher and more automatic system of child support collection, and I think that's what we have to do.”