[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 15, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E603-E604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 LED ASTRAY BY THE POVERTY ``EXPERTS''

                                 ______


                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 15, 1995
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Walter Williams, a professor of economics 
at George Mason University, has formulated a decorous and forthright 
theory which reveals the malignant problems caused by American 
dependence on the welfare state.
  Since the 1960's, Federal welfare policies have only resulted in a 
debilitating reliance by American citizens on a Federal Government not 
created to function in this area. Unfortunately, this institution--the 
welfare state--has become a permanent and detrimental fixture in our 
society.
  I commend to the attention of my colleagues the following article 
written by Mr. Williams entitled, ``Led astray by the poverty 
`experts'.'' May we all learn from his insights and wisdom as the 104th 
Congress embarks on the reformation of the outdated welfare policies 
plaguing our Nation.

[[Page E604]]

                  Led Astray by the Poverty `Experts'

                          (By Walter Williams)

       Much of what's wrong in our country is the result of 
     heeding the words of ``experts'' and ``intellectuals,'' whose 
     advice defies every notion of common sense.
       Take skyrocketing black illegitimacy. But first, let's put 
     it into perspective. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 
     percent. Today, it's 68 percent and estimated to be 75 
     percent by the year 2000. As early as the 1870s, up to 80 
     percent of black kids lived in two-parent families. Between 
     1905 and 1925, 85 percent of Harlem youngsters lived in two-
     parent families. Today, fewer than 40 percent of black kids 
     live in two-parent families. The black family could survive 
     slavery and Jim Crowism but not the welfare state.
       During the '60s, now-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a 
     report concluding, ``At the heart of the deterioration of the 
     fabric of Negro family,'' At that time, black illegitimacy 
     was 30 percent. Liberals attacked the report. Civil rights 
     leader Bayard Rustin said, ``What may be a disease to the 
     white middle class may be a healthy adaptation of the Negro 
     lower class.'' Floyd McKissick, director of COPE, echoed that 
     sentiment, saying, ``Just because Moynihan believes in 
     middle-class values doesn't mean they are the best for 
     everyone in America.''
       Those sentiments were supported by many, including supposed 
     intellectuals. Andrew Cherlin, a Johns Hopkins professor and 
     sociologist, argued it had yet to be shown that the ``absence 
     of a father was directly responsible for any of the supposed 
     deficiencies of broken homes.'' Mr. cherlin concluded that 
     the real issue ``is not the lack of male presence but the 
     lack of male income.'' In other words, fathers can be 
     replaced by a monthly welfare check. That's a stupid idea, 
     but we bought it.
       When Mr. Moynihan completed his report, according to 
     Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, attempts were made to repress 
     its release. Professors Lee Rainwater and Williams Yancey 
     suggested ``it would have been well to reduce the discussion 
     of illegitimacy because of the inflammatory nature of the 
     issue with its inevitable overtones of immorality.''
       According to William Bennett, writing in the American 
     Enterprise (January-February 1995), ``More than 70 percent of 
     black children will have been supported by Aid to Families 
     with Dependent Children payments at one point or another 
     during childhood.'' He adds, ``The most serious problems 
     afflicting our society today are manifestly moral, behavioral 
     and spiritual, and therefore remarkably resistant to 
     government cures.'' That recognition is thankfully slowly 
     dawning upon us after years of listening to experts and their 
     destructive nonsense.
       But the experts are doing their level best to keep us 
     befuddled. They continue to preach nonsense like the 
     proposition that crime and other forms of antisocial behavior 
     are caused by poverty. The truth of the matter is the causal 
     direction may be the other way around: Poverty is caused by 
     crime and antisocial behavior. After all, poverty is the 
     likely result when a person does not respect the rights and 
     property of others and ignores the values of hard work, 
     sacrifice and deferment of gratification.
       Congress has put welfare reform high on its agenda. In 
     seeking advice on what to do, they should summarily 
     disqualify all the experts whose advice we've listened to in 
     the past that has resulted in today's calamity. If I had it 
     my way, there'd be a blanket exclusion of anyone from any 
     government agency dealing with poverty and anyone who has 
     received a government grant to do research on poverty.
     

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