James Traficant: “I support the bill. While Congress has tried with good intentions, the Congress of the United States has failed. What…”

“I support the bill. While Congress has tried with good intentions, the Congress of the United States has failed. What began as a hand up is now a handout. Generation after generation are literally trapped at the bottom of the ladder without a good view of what America has to offer. The welfare system is not only broken, it is token. It has become a social placebo with a failing track record. I ask all who are in here today to deny the following. I say the welfare system currently promotes dependency and illegitimacy, discourages thrift, discourages work, separates, separates and destroys families, isolates children, and from an early age, stifles their ambition, no less. There is one other element here, folks, in this formula. Our current welfare system penalizes hardworking Americans who pay for this failing train that keeps rolling down the track at us, hurting us. This is not about Republican and Democrat. There should be more consensus today. This is about a welfare system that is bad for America. Let me submit that the Founders are rolling over in their graves looking at the great Constitution and saying, my God, how could this great instrument somehow be so misused, misapplied, that there are now Americans without hope, Americans without goals, and Americans without ambition? Shame, Congress. Come together on this issue. Pass this bill.”