Mike Levin: “All right, look. They agreed with us finally. All right, they can call it what they want. We hit them hard, and they…”

“All right, look. They agreed with us finally. All right, they can call it what they want. We hit them hard, and they finally said ``OK,'' as they did on a lot of other things where they were weak on work and hard on kids. They have moved our way. They simply have to come further. Now I want to talk about States getting people off welfare into work, which is so critical. CBO says, ``You do not have money to help States get people off welfare to work.'' That is the key. Now they say there is an authorization now. They have given this to the gentleman from Delaware [Mr. Castle]. The rumors are they will take it back in a conference. I hope those rumors are wrong. But I do not care, because it is only an authorization. What Tanner-Castle says is we are serious about welfare to work. We are tough on that and we are going to provide the States the moneys to do it. They provide zero, and CBO says they are between $9 and $12 billion short. If my colleagues want a bill that is tough on work, getting people off welfare to work, and does not hurt kids, Castle-Tanner is much closer to the mark, and they are further away. Vote for the Tanner-Castle bill. Vote for it, and then against the Republican bill. I hope the Tanner-Castle bill will pass. It is the only bipartisan effort so far. We need to keep that bipartisan spirit going. Vote for it.”