Sam Gejdenson: “what we have here today is the first welfare reform bill in the history of this Congress because all the other welfare…”

“what we have here today is the first welfare reform bill in the history of this Congress because all the other welfare reform is a fraud if at the end of the day when someone gets their first job they cannot make it work, they cannot pay the rent, they cannot buy food, they cannot pay for their kids' babysitting while they are working, they cannot pay for their transportation. Do not get up on this floor and talk about welfare reform and then try to take away the protection of the minimum wage for an additional 10 million people. This is welfare reform, making work, have a salary sufficient to live on, just barely. In the last decade 60 percent of Americans have slid backward. It is the first time in American history that we have seen the bottom take it on the chin as badly as they have. The top 20 percent has gone up. The next 20 percent below that has gone up just slightly. But the 60 percent of Americans below those top 40 have actually lost buying power. In the decades before that, everybody moved up. If my colleagues want welfare reform, vote for real welfare reform. Vote for a living wage for Americans. And this hardly does it. Go try to pay rent and take transportation to work. Try to feed kids and clothe them on the minimum wage. Do not give me phony speeches about getting people off welfare. Give people the hope and opportunity to work and at least have enough money to almost live in dignity. This is not enough.”