Political Quotes

“last year, the President and Congress enacted welfare legislation which I said was welfare repeal, not welfare reform. At that time, researchers at the Urban Institute estimated 2.6 million people would fall below the poverty line because of the legislation, 1.1 million of them children. The same researchers projected that 3.5 million children would be dropped from the rolls in 2001 because of the time limits contained in the legislation. During the debate last year, there was little attention given to the provisions concerning the eligibility of legal immigrants for benefits. These immigrants have come to America legally. They pay taxes and serve in our military. Yet the new law eliminates the eligibility of these immigrants--should misfortune strike them--for SSI and food stamps, and it severely limits their eligibility for TANF and Medicaid. Many legal immigrants affected by these restrictions are elderly. In my own State of New York, they might be frail disabled survivors of the Holocaust, or refugees from the former Soviet Union who are about to lose their only means of support. This situation has come to our attention now because it is among the first parts of the bill to be implemented. The President has proposed restoring eligibility for SSI to those legal immigrants who become disabled after entering this country.”