Mike Levin: “the basic foundations of welfare reform have been clear for some time: moving people on welfare into productive work…”

“the basic foundations of welfare reform have been clear for some time: moving people on welfare into productive work with time limits and State flexibility, protecting the child who will be a main beneficiary of breaking the cycle of dependency. While I have believed that there was a mainstream cutting across the parties to build a new structure on these foundations, and I have been actively engaged along these very lines, early Republican bills veered sharply in an opposite direction and as a result the President vetoed them. In direct response, the majority moved and there have been some significant improvements in the proposed legislation, moving from no specific provision for health care and woefully inadequate day care to assurance of health and day care as parents move off of welfare to work, better ensuring that States who meet their responsibilities and maintain their effort, not simply substituting Federal dollars for their own, canceling the punitive program cuts for severely handicapped children, restoring the safety net for foster care and child nutrition and creating a structure, though still very inadequate, to protect people who want to work from the ravages of a major recession.”