Henry Baesler: “today what I would like to take the opportunity to discuss is the proposed welfare programs that we have been talking…”

“today what I would like to take the opportunity to discuss is the proposed welfare programs that we have been talking about here in the Capitol and throughout the country over the last several months. The question, I think, is why are we discussing welfare reform today in the Capitol and throughout the country? I think there are four basic reasons. Everybody in the country, from whatever community you might live in, has seen abuses. They follow people through the food lines and see food stamps being used for things they did not think they ought to be used for. They know circumstances where food stamps have been sold for cash, trafficking in different stores throughout the community. They know people who live in section 8 housing who are not supposed to have other people live with them, but they know they are there. They report them, and nothing has happened. They know there are folks who could work that are not working who could do something constructive and are not doing something constructive. They know there are folks that all their life in all the generations have been on food stamps, poverty, other type of welfare programs, and they are frustrated. The public generally is frustrated and angry. The second reason we are discussing welfare is because most of us understand that a welfare system itself breeds a great deal of crime, a disproportionate amount of crime. People who commit crime are those who are on welfare, more than those who are not.”