James T. Tucker: “The reality, Mr. Speaker, is that the problem with welfare is this body's total abdication of its responsibility to deal…”

“The reality, Mr. Speaker, is that the problem with welfare is this body's total abdication of its responsibility to deal openly and forthrightly with the cause of welfare. Once again, we run around here so often talking about the problems of America and what we have to do to solve them, but very infrequently do we get down to the real root causes of the problem. We put Band-aid solutions on things and we try to in some way shift the burden and say that now it is the States' problem, not our problem, but we never get to the root cause of the problem. Well, what are we talking about? The problem is that these people, the recipients of welfare, need a job, need a livable wage, and that is something that is not in the Contract With America. That is something that we are not addressing ourselves to. If we did address this problem openly, Mr. Speaker, we would find that what most welfare recipients want to do is they want an opportunity to work. They do not want a welfare check. They want to work. There is dignity in work.”