Andrea Seastrand: “let me go through some reasons I think America needs commonsense welfare reform. Between 1965 and 1994, the Government…”

“let me go through some reasons I think America needs commonsense welfare reform. Between 1965 and 1994, the Government has spent $5.4 trillion, that's trillion with a ``T,'' on welfare programs. These programs were started under the proviso that we were waging a war on poverty. Thirty years and trillions of tax dollars later, poverty is winning. Another reason we need to fix welfare is the alarming increase in broken families and especially teenage illegitimacy. Researchers at the University of Washington have found that increased levels of welfare benefits almost always lead to increases in the teenage illegitimate birth rate. Welfare does not fight poverty; it perpetuates it. Welfare creates a set of incentives that crushes the work ethic, ruins the family, corrupts basic morals, and ultimately destroys the trust between people that is so necessary for civilized society. Madam Speaker, it's way past time to fix the broken welfare system.”