[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 135 (Friday, August 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S12363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           RESPONSE TO THE PRESIDENT'S SATURDAY RADIO ADDRESS

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I have prepared and taped for broadcast 
the Republican response to President Clinton's national radio address. 
My comments address the need to reform our Nation's welfare system. The 
August recess should give all Senators the opportunity to discuss with 
our constituents their views on welfare reform. When we return in 
September, I look forward the passage of a welfare reform bill that 
will be signed by President Clinton.
  I ask that my remarks be printed in the Record.
  The remarks follow:

   The Republican Response to the President's Saturday Radio Address

       If there is any area of government activity that cries out 
     for radical change it is our welfare programs. While the 
     President has talked about changing the system, it was the 
     Republican leadership that stepped forward with specific 
     proposals for reform.
       As a Presidential candidate, Bill Clinton promised to ``end 
     welfare as we know it.'' Yet for the first two years of the 
     Clinton Administration--when the Democrats controlled not 
     only the White House but both Houses of Congress--nothing was 
     done.
       In the State Houses and in Congress, Republicans are making 
     things happen. We have had legislation introduced in the 
     Senate by Bob Dole to replace the current welfare system with 
     a fundamentally new approach. That approach rests on several 
     key ideas.
       First, we want to give the states the flexibility to manage 
     their own programs. The states have been successful in 
     developing new programs that put able bodied people to work. 
     Governor Thompson of Wisconsin, for example, has worked 
     closely with his legislature and put in place a very 
     different welfare program that is working by emphasizing 
     work. The welfare roles in Wisconsin have been cut by 27 
     percent with a monthly savings of 17 and a half million 
     dollars. Those are the kinds of results we can expect with 
     greater flexibility at the state level.
       Secondly, our approach gets local administrators and case 
     workers to concentrate on moving the welfare caseload off 
     welfare and into the workforce. Most importantly, by 
     stressing employment, it gets able bodied welfare recipients 
     to support themselves and their families. Our plan requires 
     welfare recipients to be working after two years and it 
     limits the duration of eligibility for benefits.
       Last week, Democrats in the Senate finally introduced their 
     welfare bill. That bill not only keeps welfare as a federal 
     entitlement, but expands the range of benefits. Furthermore, 
     it flatly ignores pleas from the Nation's Governors to give 
     them more flexibility in designing and managing their own 
     welfare-to-work programs. To continue believing that 
     Washington ``can do it better'' is to ignore the experience 
     of the past sixty years.
       The real tragedy with the current system is the effect it 
     is having on children. In Los Angeles, 62 percent of the 
     children are on welfare. In Chicago, 43 percent of the 
     children are on welfare. In Detroit, the rate is 73 percent. 
     Clearly, we have a system that is not working, and it is even 
     making matters worse.
       Today, too many welfare recipients have a greater incentive 
     to remain on welfare than to work. We must change the 
     incentives and break the cycle of dependency. Most who are 
     living under these conditions want a much different life for 
     themselves and their children. But there has been very little 
     encouragement, and too many have no hope at all.
       We can change directions; but we must have a program that 
     emphasizes parental support for children, the value of work, 
     and individual responsibility. The Republican leadership plan 
     does that.
       Enacting real welfare reform is one of the greatest 
     challenges facing Congress and the Administration. Your 
     Congressman and Senators will be back in their states during 
     the August recess. Let them know how you feel about this 
     issue. We believe our approach is much closer to the kind of 
     change the American people want. Please support our effort if 
     you agree.
     

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