John Shaw: “I would have to revise the memory of the other side. We wanted to work with the Democrats all through this process of…”

“I would have to revise the memory of the other side. We wanted to work with the Democrats all through this process of writing this bill. The gentleman from Michigan was very much involved in that at that time. They chose not to. In committee they voted against the bill, even the one that eventually passed. When it came to the floor, they voted against the bill, even the one that eventually passed. It was not until we got to the conference and the President put his force behind this bill that they came aboard. I do not know where all of this bipartisan stuff came from, but it certainly did not come out of the committee. I think we need to be straight on history here. The Republicans led the way on welfare reform. Period. Even though the President signed it on August 22, 1996, much to his credit. I will give him credit, also, as being very, very forward looking when he was Governor of the State of Arkansas, but then he retreated under the pressure of the Democrat leadership here in the House; and it was not until right before the election in August that he finally conceded that he would sign the bill, and we sent it to him, and he had a big ceremony and everybody was there and everybody took credit for it.”