Jack Kingston: “I have been listening to them, about children and so forth. This is the same rhetoric we heard from the same group when…”

“I have been listening to them, about children and so forth. This is the same rhetoric we heard from the same group when we passed welfare reform, when we tried to change some of the other entitlement programs, to not have a complete overhaul but to target the areas that are wasting money, to try to reduce the bureaucracy of Washington. Yet, we hear from the same people. To my knowledge, we have not heard from one Democrat who has ever supported a welfare reform bill on the floor of the House. Madam Chairman, I think what we are really hearing is people who are against welfare reform. I am a father of four children. I do not want to see any kids starving out on the street. I do not want to throw any elderly out. I am hearing people debate a bill that is not even on the floor of the House. I think it is time to get back to the fact that we are increasing food stamps. The school lunch program was mentioned. We are not even affecting the school lunch program by this bill. Madam Chairman, this Congress is concerned with a government policy that has spent over $5 trillion fighting poverty, and it has failed. It has not moved us down the road. I would hope that these folks would say, listen, it is time to say welfare should not be a way of life; that able-bodied people should be required to work in order to get public assistance. One of the gentlemen earlier talked about coming to this country during the Depression. The FDR-type programs all had a work requirement.”