Steny Hoyer: “there is a consensus on this floor that our welfare system undermines the core values Americans believe in…”

“there is a consensus on this floor that our welfare system undermines the core values Americans believe in: responsibility, work, opportunity, and family. Too many people who do not want to be on welfare cannot escape it. Too many people who want to be on welfare are allowed to coast at the taxpayers' expenses. We agree that we must create a different kind of social safety net which will uphold the values our current system undermines. It must require work, it must demand responsibility, and it must protect children. Today the House will consider two alternative welfare reform proposals. One, offered by the House Republican leadership, I suggest, is not reform at all, although it has much in it with which we agree and Castle-Tanner agree. It lacks the funds for serious work requirements. CBO says so, not us. And under this bill children can be denied all support, even in an emergency, when their families are cut off welfare due to time limits. When the American people demanded an end to welfare, this is not what they had in mind. The so-called welfare reform bill offered today by the Republican leadership makes a mockery, in my opinion, of the American values of work and family. It does have progress in it. But it is not bipartisan, and that is what the American public wanted. They wanted us to come together in-bipartisan manner and reform welfare. Governor Castle, now a Congressman, and the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Tanner] have done exactly that.”