Dan Coats: “It attempts to address the question of how we can more effectively provide assistance to people in need, people living…”

“It attempts to address the question of how we can more effectively provide assistance to people in need, people living in poverty, without resorting to more of the same, which is simply funneling money into Washington, establishing a bureaucracy, and handing out welfare checks to, in many cases, perpetuate a lifestyle and a behavior that is not desirable, not giving us the results we wanted. A lot of well-intentioned programs have been offered to deal with some of the social problems that exist in our country: teen pregnancy, spousal abuse, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, and on and on it goes. Many of those, as I have said, have been well-intentioned but have simply missed the mark. They have not solved the problem. And, in many cases, they have made it worse. I do not believe either of those alternatives are acceptable alternatives. I do not believe more of the same or none of the above are the alternatives we ought to be examining.”