Mike Pence: “I rise today reminded of the tribute that we have paid to a former President named Ronald Reagan just a few days ago on…”

“I rise today reminded of the tribute that we have paid to a former President named Ronald Reagan just a few days ago on what was his 92nd birthday. I think of what Ronald Reagan spoke about as a vision for welfare in America. He said, "It is not simply to provide for the needy, but more than that, to salvage these, our fellow citizens, to make them self-sustaining and, as quickly as possible, independent of welfare." President Reagan would say on many occasions that we measure the success of welfare not by how many people arrive on it, but how many people leave it. And as we look at welfare reform this day, it is undeniable that the welfare reform of 1996, that we continue and expand through this legislation, is an unqualified success. As this diagram demonstrates, Mr. Chairman, welfare caseloads in the millions: 1994, 14 million Americans on welfare; 2001, 5 million Americans. But that does not tell the story. We can look at the cold and hard statistics: 3.6 million fewer Americans living in poverty today than 1996, 2.7 million fewer children, a million fewer African American children in poverty today since welfare reform. But as the father of three small children, Mr. Chairman, this is the most compelling statistic to me: Tanya was a single mother, went on public assistance when her twin girls were just a year old.…”