Political Quotes

“While the Senator from Louisiana is here, I want to say I very much appreciated this exchange. It made me feel like we are back in 1988. There are two things to say. One is that there is a participation requirement in existing law of 20 percent. It was put in the law in 1988--to be phased in to 20 percent--with the clear expectation that as the program took hold, the jobs program, it would move forward. In a bill before the Finance Committee--which the administration has abandoned, and I grant that--we moved that rate from 20 percent, as anticipated, on schedule just about, to 35 percent in 1998, to 40 percent in 1999, to 45 and then 50 percent in the year 2001. What we lose in so much of what is on the floor right now is the specific Federal funding to do this. Governors and mayors will look up in despair in 5 years. I say to my friend from Pennsylvania, there will be on the desk very shortly now the estimates for the proportion of children on AFDC, welfare, in 1993. These are estimated, but they are fairly accurate. In Philadelphia, at any point in time, 44 percent of the children are on AFDC. In the course of a year, 57 percent are. Now, those numbers overwhelm the system. Thirty years ago, when it would have been 10 percent at one time and 13 over a time, you could say, all right, Philadelphia, PA, you take care of this problem. I have watched it come that these numbers overwhelm the city. These problems are so much deeper.”