Charles Norwood: “someone once defined the Federal welfare system as the result of Americans wanting--in the worst way--to help those who…”

“someone once defined the Federal welfare system as the result of Americans wanting--in the worst way--to help those who have fallen behind. There must be a way to help people without trapping them in dependency, robbing their self-respect, suffocating their initiative, and paving their way to lives of despair, illiteracy, and illegitimate behavior. That better way is now working its way through the deliberative legislative process here in the House of Representatives and will be before this body in the next few days. Foremost, this new approach incorporates the realization that the Federal Government is incapable of undertaking the experiments to produce a new welfare system. To fulfill that role, we would designate the States as laboratories of innovation, reform, and effective transformation of the welfare system. We also would eliminate an expensive, unnecessary layer of Federal bureaucracy whose role has been to look over the shoulders of the States and impose a one-size-fits-all straitjacket to restrain administrators for searching for better ways to deliver help to those in need.”