Burgess Owens: “I rise in support of what we call the Mink substitute. I miss the voice of Patsy Mink ringing in my ears. I used to be…”

“I rise in support of what we call the Mink substitute. I miss the voice of Patsy Mink ringing in my ears. I used to be reminded when she talked of the quote from Shakespeare's King Lear, ``Fool me not to bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger.'' She was always full of anger about the great swindle of this welfare reform bill, about the denial of education opportunities, about the insistence that we pay the lowest rates and we allow the States to squirrel away whatever they save. There is a standard that compassionate America has already created. If we look at the amount of money received per child in the survivor's benefits program when a Social Security recipient dies and their children receive benefits, it averages out to a child receiving $558 a month. One child receives $558 a month, or $6,706 a year. In the welfare programs, we have pushed it down to that of the great model, which was Wisconsin, which was giving a family of three less than $500 a month. A family of three was receiving less than $500 a month. This, they say, is progress. We are taking the children, and it is for our children, and giving them the minimum. And I do not understand why we declare it such a great success. The food pantries, the soup kitchens in my district and in New York in general are overwhelmed with the number of people who are there now. Homelessness is greater than ever before.”