Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I would like to introduce a bill this morning because there is something fundamentally wrong with a Government program…”

“I would like to introduce a bill this morning because there is something fundamentally wrong with a Government program that pays drug addicts to remain addicted and pays alcoholics to continue being addicted to alcohol. Yet, that is precisely what the Supplemental Security Income Program currently does: It grants substance abusers an entitlement based upon their addiction. Most Americans are surprised to learn that drug abuse is now classified as a disability and that addicts and alcoholics are given SSI payments which they use to supply their addictions rather than to obtain food, shelter, and treatment which, of course, was the purpose of the program. This simply defies the commonsense test. It wastes resources and does actual harm to those it claims to help. SSI payments may, under these circumstances, provide a perverse incentive to beneficiaries. We pay them to stay on drugs, we pay them not to work, and we pay them to avoid recovery. In the words of one doctor who has spent her entire professional career dealing with the problems of addiction, SSI payments "* * * undermine the very thing they are supposed to be doing for my patients--promoting their rehabilitation." In 1994, 100,000 drug addicts and alcoholics were on the SSI rolls and received an estimated $382 million in Federal benefits, benefits that came out of the pockets of responsible, hardworking, taxpaying Americans.”