Cliff Stearns: “we prepare to begin the second session of the 103d Congress, we, in this House, should commit ourselves to passing…”

“we prepare to begin the second session of the 103d Congress, we, in this House, should commit ourselves to passing legislation to attack the plague of crime afflicting this Nation and fundamentally reform our welfare system. Failure to address these key issues will undermine any efforts we undertake to strengthen our economy or address our social problems. A system that allows criminals to ply their trade in our cities, or lets individuals live better on welfare than work, destroys any message we can send on values or opportunity. For many years, well-intentioned men and women in this House have opposed welfare reform and tougher crime laws because they believed we must address the so-called root causes of poverty first. Well, today, I think it is clear that the failures of the criminal justice and welfare systems are some of the greatest root causes of poverty in America today. The material welfare of the average poor American is better than an average American knew 30 years ago. Yet their quality of life, and more generally all our lives, are worse, because of crime and the disintegration of the family. The time has come to address these issues.”