Jennifer Dunn: “I am involved in this debate on welfare because I believe that the current welfare system and what it does to children…”

“I am involved in this debate on welfare because I believe that the current welfare system and what it does to children, and families is a crime. The system is cruel, it is broken, and it needs to be fixed. For the third time today, Madam Chairman, we are going to vote to send to the President a welfare bill so he can keep his promise that he made in his campaign to reform welfare. It is a clean bill and it protects children. It is based on three principles: One, that welfare should not be a way of life; that these poor children, some of whom never have a working role model in their lives, will not be put in that position ever, ever again. It is also based on the second principle of returning flexibility to the States; and, third, it is based on the principle that if Government is going to provide incentives in our lives, that the incentive in welfare should be to encourage personal responsibility in our citizens. Today I want to focus on one thing that is probably the most important thing in this whole debate, and that is the children.”