Mike Levin: “I want to say a word about a difference in terms of the employment credit. What the Republican bill does is essentially…”

“I want to say a word about a difference in terms of the employment credit. What the Republican bill does is essentially ignore the important goal of welfare reform, and that is giving incentives to the States to help people move off of welfare into productive work. Instead, their focus is on keeping people on welfare, working even in makeshift jobs. That is a stark difference. I want to close by saying a word about the very partisan nature of this discussion. My colleagues have forfeited the opportunity to work together to fashion a bipartisan bill, forfeited it. The employment credit is in the Senate bill on a bipartisan basis. They have thumbed their nose at every bipartisan effort. They have thumbed their nose at the efforts of the Clinton administration. They have twisted that legacy. My colleagues also twisted the efforts of Democrats 5 and 6 years ago to move ahead welfare reform in the right direction. Fortunately, there is a Senate to correct the hopelessly partisan effort of this majority.”