Louie Gohmert: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, despite all of the diatribe, all of the allegations, so many of which shocked me, this…”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, despite all of the diatribe, all of the allegations, so many of which shocked me, this bill passed. There were things in the farm bill I was not crazy about, but what an extraordinary day for this reason: over the last 40-50 years, Members of the other party have increasingly made the United States a welfare state where more and more American people are dependent upon this government for their livelihood. Having been at a Harvard orientation course, I was shocked to have a dean there with charts that showed that since welfare began, and assistance to single moms, a check actually for each child that any woman could have out of wedlock, they would get a check from the government. Now, it was well intentioned. Back in the sixties, there were deadbeat dads that were not helping with their obligation to help their children, and so the government, people here in Congress thought, wow, why don't we help these poor single moms by giving them a check for every child they have out of wedlock. At that time we were around 6-7 percent of children being born to single-parent homes. And after 40 years--actually after 30 years, as economists will tell you, you will get more of what you pay for. And so we are to date now past 40 percent and moving toward 50 percent of children born in American to a single-mom home because we got what we paid for. Now, it doesn't matter how well intentioned the program was.…”