Dale Bumpers: “I am deeply troubled by the Dole proposal. I do not see how I can support it. One of the reasons I cannot support it is…”

“I am deeply troubled by the Dole proposal. I do not see how I can support it. One of the reasons I cannot support it is because there is no comprehensive plan on child care. Any welfare proposal that does not consider child care is doomed to failure. Women are not going to work unless they have someplace that will take care of their children during work hours. There is no added money in the Dole proposal for that purpose. The Dole proposal also has a number of other shortcomings. For instance, the Dole proposal shortchanges States in the Sunbelt, such as Arkansas, where immigration is on the increase. The bill provides no additional funding to take care of a recession when the number of applicants for welfare grow. It seems to me that the proposal is fatally flawed in a number of ways. So I am going to strongly support the Daschle proposal, which attempts to address these issues. Every Member of the Senate wants to vote for welfare reform. However, we have to reform welfare in a commonsensical manner; not the willy-nilly approach taken by the Dole proposal.”