[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 54 (Thursday, March 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3720-H3721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        WELFARE REFORM AND JOBS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased this evening to rise to 
discuss the issue of welfare reform and jobs and perhaps looking at it 
at a different perspective than some of my colleagues who have stood 
today. It is amazing what people do not say on this issue, and I think 
far too many Members of this body are looking through the wrong end of 
the telescope on opportunity.
  There is no question that America's families and America's welfare 
families often fail to remain whole because America's job-producing 
machine is failing.
  In my own home district of northwest Ohio, half the people, I repeat, 
half the people on welfare are working people. Half the men, half the 
women are not unwilling to work. They work everyday. Some work two and 
three jobs. But they still remain on welfare.
  Half the people on welfare in my home district are there for one 
reason only, and that is to receive the health benefit. Half cannot 
receive a health benefit through their private sector employment and so 
they fall on to the welfare rolls as the only hope to receive health 
insurance.
  About 15 percent of the people on welfare in my home region are blind 
or disabled or elderly, and the remaining 30 percent, adults and 
children, are really what most of this discussion has been focused on.
  And we are all for moving able-bodied people into the work force, but 
I want to concentrate on the half of the welfare rolls that nobody 
talks about, and those are the people who are out there hustling 
everyday, and they do not earn enough to buy the basic necessities.
  And I have found it rather ironic that, as the House has labored 
through this welfare reform discussion, it has been interesting to read 
the newspaper headlines today. In the Washington Post, the lead story, 
U.S. trade gap soared in January, economists warn of weaker dollar, and 
the economic growth of this country over the next year dropping a full 
percentage point because of difficulties we face in our trade and 
economic policies.
  The Wall Street Journal, major story today, United States trade 
deficit widened in January to a record $12 billion as peso woes and the 
problems with NAFTA and the Mexico bailout have a terrible impact 
inside our own economy. And for every billion dollars of 
 [[Page H3721]] additional deficit another 20,000 jobs lost in this 
country.
                              {time}  2230

  And nobody in Washington really cares.
  Another article, ``Dollar Declines Still Further on News of Trade 
Gap,'' and it talks in the New York Times, ``United States Trade 
Deficit Soars to Record, Mexico Worsens Problem.''
  Today the value of the U.S. dollar dropped again on international 
markets, and today it was also reported that our Nation's trade 
imbalance in January dropped 68 percent, got 68 percent worse, the 
largest ever in a single month in the history of this Nation, another 
20,000 jobs, times 20,000, times 20,000, $12 billion of additional 
deficit, more lost jobs in this country in sectors that the newspapers 
tell us are very clear in telecommunications, another 30,000 jobs will 
be lost, in electrical machinery, in office computing machines, the 
places where we would like to put people who still remain on welfare 
and are not working, into good jobs, will not be there. The numbers are 
telling us this.
  We know that the wages and buying power of our people have not gone 
up for 20 years, and we know that thousands and thousands of jobs are 
being eliminated across this country at companies like Boeing, which is 
going to lay off another 7,000 workers, and companies like Fisher Price 
in New York who just announced several hundred more workers out, but do 
you think anybody here in Washington really hears or understands what 
is going on?
  And there is a major continental economic crisis here in North 
America that nobody is really talking about in this Chamber caused by 
NAFTA that is already causing market instability and is going to have 
far reaching economic consequences for our Nation and for Mexico, lower 
wages, higher interest rates, a worsening trade situation for our 
Nation with more lost sales and jobs and a deluge of cheap Mexican 
imports coming into our market. Five billion dollars from our Treasury 
has already gone down to Mexico, and another 15 billion scheduled as 
soon as it can be drawn down.
  Does the Contract on America say anything about America's economic 
plight? No.
  Does it say anything about what I have just discussed? No.
  The blame is all put on welfare recipients, the majority of whom work 
in my district. What a shame.

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