[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3541]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 IN SUPPORT OF THE DEAL SUBSTITUTE BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaTourette). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentlewoman from Arkansas [Mrs. Lincoln] is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. Speaker, I would certainly like to say to my 
colleague from Georgia and the others over there that, yes, we do thank 
your leadership for bringing up some of these issues that we have 
worked very hard on over the past 3 years. And I guess I can say that, 
as a newer Member, I also think it is important that we shed our 
pettiness in terms of who is bringing up the issues and look more at 
what is happening to the American people. I think that is one of the 
objectives that I and many of the other colleagues that I have shared 
this bill with, the Deal substitute bill, in trying to put people above 
politics, and that is a very important issue that we have to do right 
now.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. LINCOLN. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I thought it was the Democrat chart that had a T shape 
on our plan versus your plans. I was only responding to your plan.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. I just think it is very important for the American 
people to know our group and the bill that we have produced is very 
nonpartisan. It is a very practical bill. It is very realistic. And we 
are here because we want to put people before politics. That is what is 
important, taking the American people, looking at what their needs are.
  Tomorrow we will have the options of looking at the bill offered by 
the gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. Mink], the Deal bill, and the 
Republican Contract bill.
  We have worked hard. We have produced a bill that is really realistic 
in terms of what it does for the American people and in terms of what 
it does for this Nation in long-term getting people off of welfare, and 
that is what we want. We do not want to just throw them off of welfare. 
We want to get them off of welfare, get them off of the generational 
dependency and put them into a constructive, contributing life style.
  People have a tendency really to ignore the voice of reason, and I 
think really that is what we have got to present in the Deal bill is 
real reason, looking at what people need to survive and to become 
independent.
  It is time that we finally hear what that voice of reason is. We have 
talked about priorities tonight. Are you going to talk about food and 
making sure children get fed, or are you going to talk about $20 
billion to $40 billion of increases in military spending? Are you going 
to talk about putting people back to work and giving them the 
opportunity to provide for themselves? That is what is important. We 
have got to look at where this Nation is spending its money.
  In terms of percentages, if you look at the money we are spending on 
both military, on interest, on the debt, the talks we have had here 
tonight in terms of nutrition, less than 0.1 percent are a drop in the 
bucket in what we need to do, and our voice of reason, the Deal 
substitute, puts more people to work than the alternative bills that 
will be offered tomorrow.
  The Deal substitute is the only one that devotes its entire savings 
to deficit reduction, and if you are serious about deficit reduction 
for your children and your children's children, you have got to realize 
that we have got to put those savings toward deficit reduction. We 
realize the same amount of savings
 roughly that the Republican plan does, but we direct our savings to 
deficit reduction, because we are worried about the future of our 
children, not only in welfare reform, but also in deficit reduction.

  The Deal substitute recognizes that it is impossible to work without 
proper job training and child care. You cannot ask a single mother to 
work for her benefits if she has nowhere to take her children.
  And, yes, you are right, the family structure in this Nation is 
deteriorating, and that young woman does not have the support network 
of a family, a grandparent or a parent to look after that child. She 
has got to depend on some child care, and we have got to provide it, 
and we do in the Deal substitute. We not only provide it, but we pay 
for it, and that is an important part of what we do.
  The Deal substitute identifies the problems that have been created in 
the crazy checks abuse, and it solves the problem. I have seen a 
tremendous amount of that problem in my district, and I have been 
working hard over these past years to look for a reasonable solution 
that does not throw out the baby with the bath water. It does not put 
that child with cerebral palsy out on the street, but it makes sure the 
disabled children, especially those that are multiply disabled, are 
going to be helped, but the ones that are abusing the programs, those 
loopholes will be closed.
  The Deal substitute is the only one that sets a 2-year lifetime limit 
on welfare benefits, the only program that is going to be offered that 
sets a 2-year lifetime limit.
  We give the States the option of extending benefits for 2 more years 
with community service, and that is what we have heard from most people 
is that the States know better how to craft and to recraft those 
programs to get their people back into the work force.
  The Deal substitute gives States more flexibility than any other 
proposal without passing massive costs on to the States, no unfunded 
mandates. We do not produce the unfunded mandates, because we know it 
is unrealistic, and in the long run it will not work.
  The Deal substitute does not demand family caps. Instead, we give 
that flexibility to the States, that option of denying additional 
benefits to mothers who have more children while on welfare.
  The Deal substitute includes welfare benefits as taxable income. It 
is the best alternative you are going to get, and I encourage my 
colleagues to support it.


                          ____________________