JOHN LINDER: “Some Democrats have said the welfare expansion in this bill is about jobs. It's not. It's about more welfare. This bill…”

“Some Democrats have said the welfare expansion in this bill is about jobs. It's not. It's about more welfare. This bill would expand the welfare emergency fund Democrats created in last year's failed stimulus bill. That fund made available up to $5 billion in new ``welfare emergency funds'' over fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The bill before us would make available another up to $5 billion for just fiscal year 2011, which starts in October. So they propose to double the welfare funds for this program, all in just one year. That is so much new welfare money that CBO estimates States wouldn't be able to spend it all. Still, the $3.5 billion CBO estimates States would spend next year would almost match the $4 billion States have spent in the last two years. No matter how you slice it, spending out of this welfare emergency fund would accelerate rapidly under this bill. What would this money be spent on? The same things it is currently spent on--almost exclusively more and bigger welfare checks.”