Blake Moore: “Before I close, I would just like to mention one personal experience that I had just this last week. After having…”

“Before I close, I would just like to mention one personal experience that I had just this last week. After having suffered an aneurysm, one of my sisters was on her way back to the hospital this morning. Because I didn't have access to a vehicle, I went and purchased the last meal that I gave her before I journeyed back to Washington, D.C. I bought her 100 percent orange juice from a liquor store that was within walking distance of my home. So it may be an unintended consequence, but this is just a mean- spirited effort to, one more time, kick the poor people who are now half of all Americans. Mr. Speaker, here we are once again. Like a broken record the Republican leadership continues to play the same sad song. One that claims to help the poor and middle class but in the end will only exacerbate our already weak economy. As always, the devil is in the details. This so called Welfare Integrity and Data Improvement Act will only help to make an already broken program worse while also restricting access for our most vulnerable families. But be careful. New Census data released today reveals that 1 in 2 Americans have fallen into poverty. One half of all Americans are now either poor or low-income!!! The rate at which women and children are being thrown under the bus is a strong indication that TANF has systematically failed to close the expanding poverty gap, build pathways to sustainable employment, and has done little to alleviate the problem of growing chronic poverty.…”