[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 13 (Thursday, February 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              BIG GOVERNMENT HAS CREATED THE WELFARE MESS

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, everyone from President Clinton on down is 
talking about welfare reform. What some do not yet realize or are 
unwilling to admit is that our big government liberal establishment 
policies have largely created the mess we are in. Most of the welfare 
programs we now have benefit the bureaucrats more than the intended 
beneficiaries. A welfare supervisor from New Hampshire wrote in last 
week's U.S. News and World Report these words:

       Welfare programs start with the best of intentions but 
     never seem to instill a sense of responsibility. Instead of 
     solving the problem, they perpetuate it. Recent federally 
     mandated programs are legitimizing illegitimacy at a 
     tremendous social and economic cost.

  The Federal welfare state has been a total and complete failure. In 
fact, it has made the problem worse. The only real way to correct the 
problem is to do something that I know we will not do, and that is to 
get the Federal Government totally out of the welfare business. The 
function should be returned to our local governments without Federal 
requirements or mandates because it can be handled the most 
economically and efficiently at the local level.

                              {time}  1030

  Our benefits are too generous and any society that pays healthy 
people more to stay at home than to work cannot long survive

                          ____________________