Bob Dole: “I mean every able-bodied welfare recipient to find work within 2 years, or a shorter period of time if the State so…”

“I mean every able-bodied welfare recipient to find work within 2 years, or a shorter period of time if the State so desires. I mean a real 5-year lifetime limit on welfare payments with few exceptions. I mean making certain that illegal noncitizens are ineligible for all emergency benefits. I mean giving States the ability to stop payments to unmarried teens. And, above all, I mean trusting the Nation's Governors with the flexibility they need to establish the laboratories of our democracy. I think it is fair to say that there are different approaches. Everybody wants welfare reform. I think the President and I have a different approach. It will be debated--maybe after my departure from the Senate--and I hope there is some way to work out welfare and Medicaid as a package and have that signed by the President. We are witnessing in the inner cities out-of-wedlock births as high as 80 percent. Most Americans believe, I think, that able-bodied people on welfare should work if there are jobs, and the President indicated yesterday that, in effect, he said he would take our suggestions.”