Eleanor Holmes Norton: “the present welfare system is a monument to passive government. It helps you get on. It will not do anything to help you…”

“the present welfare system is a monument to passive government. It helps you get on. It will not do anything to help you work your way off. There is only one solution that will work, and that solution is work, steady work and steady income sufficient to support a family. Work is the solution of choice of the American people as well, and is the solution of choice of welfare recipients. Work is not just what welfare recipients want. Work is what welfare recipients do. More than two-thirds of them leave the rolls by themselves. The Congress has to focus on what the problem, the real problem is here. It is not getting off, it is keeping off. They come back for lack of a steady job that pays enough to support their family or the sine qua non for keeping a job, and that is a place to leave your child. You are not serious about welfare reform unless you are serious about jobs that pay a family wage and assist people in finding a place to leave their children. The obligation to support one's own child is undebatable. There is no easy or cheap way out however for the Congress because two-thirds of the people we are talking about are children. There should be no free lunch for mothers on welfare. But we will find out that neither is there a free lunch for Congress as it strives to reduce the welfare rolls.”