Bill Archer: “Madam Chairman, I want to talk for just a while about the basis for reform. I think it is worthwhile to examine the…”

“Madam Chairman, I want to talk for just a while about the basis for reform. I think it is worthwhile to examine the current welfare system and its results over the last few years. This chart shows very graphically, this line right here is the poverty rate in the United States. Beginning in 1950, you can see it drops until about 1965 or so. Well, it just happens to be that 1965 was the beginning of the Great Society programs, and the avalanche of welfare spending in this country; as it has been said, $5 trillion over the last 30 years. What happens in 1965? It flattens out, the poverty rate, and then even goes up. So nothing has happened on the poverty rate. It has even gone up a little bit since 1965, since we have spent $5 trillion. This blue line right here is spending on welfare. Look, it is going off the chart in 1995. We are not getting the results, folks, that were advertised with all the taxpayer spending that we have done. It is the current system that is trapping children in poverty. It is the current system that is cruel to children. And if you do not recognize that, you have not been paying attention. Now is the time, not next year, not 5 or 10 years from now, now is the time finally to do something about this terrible welfare system that we have got.”