Blake Moore: “I thank the gentleman for that because I thought maybe it was just me who thought that. Here we are, we live in a…”

“I thank the gentleman for that because I thought maybe it was just me who thought that. Here we are, we live in a country with the largest economy, with arguably the strongest, greatest technological economy, and I wonder what these poor women who are on welfare would do? He says he wants to get them off of welfare. Would they sell fruit on the street? How would that work in Detroit or Milwaukee? We are not talking about women who live in countries where microloans may work very well in those limited economies. {time} 2100 I am also wondering how those people who are structurally unemployed would benefit from these microloans. What this does, Madam Chairperson of this initiative, is that what this really is saying is that this is really perpetuating the persistent myth of people who are poor as the shiftless, lazy welfare queens of poverty pimps, and that the solution is to take away the safety net and force them to do some kind of work, whether that work is sustainable enough for them. And so I would say, as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, that we ought to have welfare reform that really honors our commitment as Americans to make sure that we provide some kind of safety net for the majority of the poor who are, in fact, children. There are, in fact, people who are not capable, or should not be responsible, for providing for themselves through our very sophisticated economy. I would say, Mr.…”