Jon L. Christensen: “Bill Clinton and the Washington liberal groups are leading a double life. They claim that they want to end welfare as we…”

“Bill Clinton and the Washington liberal groups are leading a double life. They claim that they want to end welfare as we know it, yet fight it and veto every plan we put forward. They say they want to increase the earnings of working Americans, but yet they are pushing to hike the minimum wage, which kills low-wage jobs. To add injury to insult, they denounce tax relief for working families and job creation which would help accomplish both those goals. Well, Mr. Speaker, Bill Clinton's strategy undercuts both getting people off the welfare rolls and letting them keep more of what they earn. Studies show that hiking the minimum wage swells the welfare rolls. That is because increasing the minimum wage will cut out over 400,000 entry-level jobs, the very jobs needed to get people off of welfare in the first place. If Bill Clinton truly cares about the working poor, he will end his double life. He will stop vetoing plans to spring people from the welfare trap, he will stop pushing the minimum wage, rusting the welfare trap shut, and he will certainly stop vetoing the tax relief that he himself has promised. It is time for Bill Clinton to stop living a double life.”