Major Owens: “We are driven by some forces that are irrational here. I said before I hope welfare reform does not become revenge on…”

“We are driven by some forces that are irrational here. I said before I hope welfare reform does not become revenge on the poor where we throw away any reason because there is a scream out there by people who really do not know who the fat cats on welfare are, and do not realize they are being swindled out of their taxpayers' money day in and day out by people who are in some cases billionaires. They just see poor people and they want to get revenge, get rid of any benefits that they are getting, and they lose their perspective, we lose our perspective and we create more problems than we solve. We are going to scar and hurt children in ways that will make it more costly for society in the future. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Hawaii. I am going to have to leave now, but I look forward to further dialogues with her. I hope that the American people are watching closely as we develop this welfare reform program. The gentlewoman has facts and statistics and is on top of the program and following the development of the plans in a way which is commendable, and I look forward to the use of her monitoring of the program as a resource. I have in my district large numbers of people who are on welfare. I have large numbers of people on welfare who tell me all of the time that they would like very much to get off. Nobody seems to want to stay on welfare.”