Burgess Owens: “I think Charlie would immediately understand that welfare reform was not reform. It was an attack again on working…”

“I think Charlie would immediately understand that welfare reform was not reform. It was an attack again on working people, on poor people, people that do not work but who are aspiring to become working people, people who are working but lose their job and they fall back into the welfare. Workers who are unemployed and need food stamps. Nobody would have to explain anything to Charlie about the devastating impact of the welfare reform. I am sure that in his last days, his knowledge of what had happened did not help at all in terms of how he felt about this country, where the country is moving. I am sure he was quite upset by the welfare reform and the fact we had this attack on the working class, attack on people in a way which really goes at the heart of survival. We cannot survive unless we have something to eat. We cannot survive unless we have a place to stay. And the attack on welfare was an attack, of course, also on children, because welfare is mainly aid to dependent children.”