[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 73 (Monday, June 13, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             BEHAVIORAL POVERTY LEADS TO WELFARE DEPENDENCY

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                          HON. JAMES M. TALENT

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 13, 1994

  Mr. TALENT. Mr. Speaker, ending welfare as we know it is just 
rhetoric unless we recognize and change what is fundamentally wrong 
current welfare policy--its promotion of self-destructive behaviors 
that lead to dependency. As the following analysis by the Heritage 
Foundation's Robert Rector makes clear, illegitimacy, and nonwork are 
at the root of welfare dependency because they make self-sufficiency so 
difficult to attain.
  Rector offers three goals to pursue in formulating policies that will 
actively discourage welfare dependency: Create a system in which 
recipients are expected to contribute something back; control welfare 
costs; and reduce illegitimacy and encourage marriage. I encourage my 
colleagues to real the full op-ed article that recently appeared in the 
Washington Times.

               [From the Washington Times, May 14, 1994]

                  Welfare Reform Rhetoric and Reality


                         behavioral destitution

                           (By Robert Rector)

       For welfare reform to work, it must focus on the root 
     behavioral problems of illegitimacy, divorce and nonwork--not 
     merely on the superficial symptom of welfare dependence.
       But despite a rhetorical commitment to ``end welfare as we 
     know it,'' the Clinton administration appears unprepared to 
     take the serious steps needed to deal with this ``behavioral 
     poverty.''
       Despite its rhetorical commitment to dealing with ``root 
     causes,'' the White House's reform rhetoric poses the problem 
     of welfare backwards, seeking to devise schemes to prod and 
     assist individuals to leave welfare rather than seeking to 
     reduce the self-destructive behavior that leads to dependence 
     in the first place.
       This approach is self-deluding; and it won't work. No array 
     of government programs is going to make a 20-year-old woman 
     with little or no education who has had one or two children 
     out of wedlock ``self-sufficient.'' Nor, despite her best 
     efforts, is that single mother likely to be able to provide a 
     truly healthy social environment for her children.
       Societies through the ages have recognized that it takes 
     the efforts of at least two people, a father and a mother, to 
     provide the economic and psychological support needed to 
     raise children. That's why societies historically have gone 
     to great lengths to encourage marriage and, conversely, to 
     discourage illegitimacy.
       Current U.S. welfare policy reverses this wisdom by 
     aggressively subsidizing single parenthood and penalizing 
     marriage. The results of this experiment have been 
     disastrous.
       For the well-being of American children and the safety of 
     society, a sense of responsible parenthood must be restored, 
     based on the principle that it is immoral to have children, 
     unless you are fully prepared to raise them.
       To be fully prepared to raise children means three simple 
     things. First, the mother and father must be married and 
     committed to a life together. Second, the parents must be 
     mature and psychologically ready for the difficult task of 
     raising the young. And third, the parents should be 
     economically productive and self-sufficient, able to sustain 
     a family without large amounts of ongoing financial support 
     from outside sources.
       The welfare system mainly involves failed attempts to pick 
     up the pieces for an ever-increasing number of individuals 
     who have violated the above rules.
       Government policy not only must stop subsidizing and 
     promoting such irresponsible behavior, it must actively 
     discourage it. To do that, we need to pursue three goals:
       We need to promote individual responsibility by converting 
     welfare from a one-way handout into a system in which 
     recipients are expected to contribute something back for 
     temporary aid received.
       We need to control welfare costs.
       Most importantly, we need to dramatically reduce the 
     illegitimate birthrate and increase the marriage rate.
       Achieving these goals will require a broad array of policy 
     changes. In some cases it will require eliminating welfare 
     benefits that promote harmful and antisocial behavior. In 
     other cases, it may be sufficient to require welfare 
     recipients to perform community service work in exchange for 
     benefits. In some circumstances, welfare benefits may be 
     converted into loans, which the recipient will be expected to 
     repay at a future time.
       Serious reform also should include new incentives that 
     encourage positive behavior.
       All welfare reform must be undergirded by firm budgetary 
     controls on the growth of future welfare spending. Welfare 
     bureaucracies are prolific in inventing new programs that 
     allegedly promote self-sufficiency but that accomplish 
     nothing or actually draw more people into welfare dependency.
       Without definite limits on the funds flowing into the 
     welfare system, such counterproductive ``reforms'' will 
     merely produce more of what we have today: a War on Poverty 
     that can't be won.

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