[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SUPPORT THE CASTLE-TANNER WELFARE REFORM BILL

  (Mrs. CLAYTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, some in Congress have demonized the poor, 
that they have become the poster children for all that is wrong in 
America. They have convinced the American people that the welfare 
mothers and their children have caused a great debt that our Nation has 
acquired. They have now made the new Joan of Arc out of the teenaged 
mothers.
  Just last week, what do they want to do when they say teenaged 
children are having children? The President asks for $30 million, and 
they did not give one cent. They would rather spend $6.4 billion after 
the child has a child. Yet, this week, what do we do for children? If 
you have a child, we are going to make sure we take your children off 
of welfare. We will teach the teenaged mother you must not do this, but 
when we have a chance to make a difference in their lives we do 
absolutely nothing.
  H.R. 3734 is a mean way to reform. Yes, we need reform, and certainly 
the Castle-Tanner bill is a better way to reform, not the bill that is 
going to be introduced. This is antichildren, anti the poor. We should 
do better in this Nation, rather than to demonize the most vulnerable 
of our Nation.

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