On the recordApril 11, 2002
In 1996 when we passed welfare reform, after both of us voting against it because it did not provide a safety net for children, we warned the President, then Bill Clinton, and our colleagues, many of whom agreed with us and voted with us, that getting women off of welfare and into jobs would not be enough, that just could not be the end result of welfare reform, and we warned them that that was particularly important to look at if there was a downturn in our economy. We did not mean to be prophetic. I mean, we did not want to be seers. We just knew, and there it is. We were right, because this recent economic downturn has exposed the problem that we talked about in the 1996 welfare reform bill. The guiding principle of 1996 reform was that welfare was the enemy. But the enemy was not welfare, and we knew it. The enemy, and still is, is poverty.
Source
govinfo.gov
