George Miller: “many of this Nation's governors are amazing. For the last 2 years they have been coming to Washington and telling anyone…”

“many of this Nation's governors are amazing. For the last 2 years they have been coming to Washington and telling anyone who would listen that they could reform the welfare system with one hand behind their back. They said they could do more for less, better than the Federal Government ever thought it could. They went from Meet the Press, to committee hearings, to Nightline, saying to whoever would listen that they were the only ones who knew how to reform the system and had the courage to make the tough decisions. When asked about legal immigrants and about moving people to work, about a safety net for children, their answer was always the same: Leave it to us. The States are the great laboratories of the 1990's. Well, the ink is barely dry on the Welfare Reform Act and now the Governors are back here whining about the welfare bill that they designed. Why do these Governors remind me of Riddick Bowe? They have spent less time living with the welfare reform law than Riddick Bowe did with the U.S. Marines. Riddick said his problem was the lack of flexibility. The Governors are suggesting that their problem is too much flexibility. They are responsible for too much of the welfare caseload. Excuse me, we gave them the block grant that they asked for, calculated on the high welfare years of 1994. Many are already taking credit, along with the President, for causing the number of welfare recipients to drop by over 2 million.…”