Frank Riggs: “It is unfortunate that just when I thought we were hopefully going to have a constructive debate on welfare reform, the…”

“It is unfortunate that just when I thought we were hopefully going to have a constructive debate on welfare reform, the gentleman from Wisconsin marches off the floor. He has taken his ball and apparently he is going home. If he was still here, my response to him would have been baloney, double baloney, and triple baloney, or see your baloney and raise you one, because the reality is he is not going to support welfare reform in any form or in any version. He not only has voted with the Democrats twice against our welfare reform proposals, but he is actively now attempting to thwart and to delay and to obstruct the efforts of the Wisconsin State legislature and the Governor of Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, the Governor of his own State, to obtain a reasonable welfare reform waiver from Washington, the big government bureaucracy back here. Mr. Speaker, the reality is he talks about taxpayers and working people, but the current welfare system is fundamentally unfair to working American families. It pays for non-work, it reinforces personal abhorrent behaviors and values which harm parents, children, and families. It is another classic 'Let's rob Peter to pay Paul' scenario.”