[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 44 (Thursday, March 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2975]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             WELFARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nevada [Mr. Ensign] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. Speaker, since Lyndon Johnson first launched the 
Great Society programs of the 1960s this country has now spent over $5 
trillion to defeat poverty, a war that we have since lost and lost 
miserably.
  You know, some people around here try to define compassion as how 
much money we can give to people and how many people we can put on 
welfare and how many people we can make dependent on a system that has 
failed that has destroyed the family. That has had crime rate skyrocket 
over the last 30 years, that has seen out-of-wedlock birth and we need 
to abandon that system and start over.
  Incremental welfare reform will not work. President Clinton said it 
is time to honor and reward people who work hard and play by the rules. 
The administration knows that our welfare system is broken.
  The people who defend our current welfare system want to keep people, 
or at least they seem to at least want to keep people in poverty. That 
can be the only justification for defending the current welfare system.
  We are here and we were sent here to revolutionize the welfare 
system. It does not work. Government cannot be compassionate by 
definition because the word compassion means ``to suffer with.'' Only 
individuals can suffer with other individuals, to offer them a hand up 
instead of a handout.
  Our welfare system was intended to be a safety net in between work. 
If you happened to get in trouble, there was a safety net. What was 
intended to be a safety net has now become a hammock that, in time, 
becomes like a spider web that just entraps people and they cannot get 
out of it.
  When I was campaigning, I would go through and meet different people, 
and I have a brochure and one of the things in the brochure talked 
about mandatory work for welfare recipients. Single mothers that I met 
with, that was the thing that they picked up on almost immediately 
every time that I met them. Mandatory work for people that are out 
there struggling, and they know that their tax dollars are going to pay 
for
 somebody that could be working, but is not. That is the hallmark of 
our welfare plan that will be voted on later this month.

  You know, our country is a great country. And we have been known to 
be an opportunity society that has attracted people from around the 
world. But to continue to keep people in poverty is wrong. It is 
morally wrong.
  This is not a question of economics; this is a question of morality. 
It is morally wrong to keep people in poverty by making them dependent 
on a system that they just don't see any way that they can get out of.
  I believe that our country needs to become that opportunity society 
once again. We need to encourage small businesses and jobs, encourage 
entrepreneurs that are going to get out there and create opportunities 
for minorities and women and all people. We need to look for economic 
principles that don't benefit the rich, that don't benefit the middle 
class or the poor, they benefit all classes of people, young and old, 
black and white, Hispanic. It does not matter.
  We need to have principles that look for situations where all classes 
of people win. Instead of saying it is the Republicans or the 
Democrats, we need to put partisanship aside. I have only been here a 
short time and the partisanship of this place is sickening on 
committees and on the House floor. We need to put that aside and work 
for the American people. We were all sent here to solve the problems 
that a lot of this government has created. We were sent here to solve 
those problems, and we need to get down to doing the business that the 
American people sent us here to do.
  In conclusion, let me say that I am proud to represent the people of 
Nevada. They are hard-working people with the work ethic, I think, that 
is known throughout the West. And because of that work ethic, they sent 
me here to get people off of welfare and into work.

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