[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 40 (Friday, March 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


REPUBLICANS' WELFARE REFORM PLAN OFFERS A HELPING HAND- UP, 
                             NOT A HANDOUT

  (Mrs. SMITH of Washington asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, according to the Congressional 
Research Service, welfare spending in 1992 reached an all-time high of 
$210 billion. This is nearly three times as much as we need to abolish 
all poverty in the United States.
  What does the American taxpayer get for this? What do we have to show 
for it? I will tell the Members: a bureaucracy that is wasting our 
money. Even worse, we have higher crime, higher illegitimacy, family 
disintegration, low educational achievement, neglect, and moral 
confusion.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not think the devil himself could have come up with 
a better scheme to destroy America and her children. Yet, the Democrats 
come here day after day to defend a system that has produced nothing 
but misery for America's poor, and the poor children. They have done 
this after controlling Congress for over 40 years, building this system 
of misery.
  We have pledged to change the failed liberal welfare system, not by 
giving a handout, but by giving a helping hand up.

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