Jack Kingston: “there is an old story, and a lot of Members have heard this before. A farmer wanted to borrow an ax from his neighbor…”

“there is an old story, and a lot of Members have heard this before. A farmer wanted to borrow an ax from his neighbor one night. He went and knocked on the door and said, I need to borrow your ax. The neighbor said that he could not lend the farmer his ax tonight. The farmer said, Why not? The neighbor said because I am making soup. Making soup, what does that have to do with me borrowing your ax or not? The neighbor said not a thing, but when you do not want to do something, any excuse works. That is what we are hearing tonight from my good friends on the other side of the aisle. They do not like the bill. They do not like welfare reform. They did not like welfare reform in 1996. I did not know this was the Bill Clinton welfare bill until a few minutes ago, for example. I remember him vetoing it twice. In fact, I only remember him signing it when his campaign consultant, Dick Morris, told him he needed to do it in order to get reelected. And, as I recall, he did it in the middle of the night. Does anybody here remember going to the bill signing ceremony? I am proud of the gentleman. Next time see if you can get me one of those invitations. I did not get one.”