[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 113 (Monday, July 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8602-H8603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       COMMENTS ON WELFARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from the 
District of Columbia. I think she is absolutely right, and I think that 
it is time that we try a different approach with the District. We have 
seen a failed policy of liberalism that has brought this District to 
what it is, and I think it is absolutely appropriate that at this time 
in the District's history, we should take advantage of the situation 
that we have here, and we should do something that is opportunity-
oriented, that is incentive-oriented, using a different approach, and 
see what the results will be. I am absolutely confident that the 
results that the gentlewoman is looking for will in fact come about, 
and I am going to support her in her efforts. I appreciate the courage 
that the gentlewoman has taken to undertake this.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to speak about the welfare bill that we dealt 
with last week. I want to start out, I came across a number of I think 
fascinating quotations from the State of the Union address in 1935 by 
Franklin D. Roosevelt. I want to read some of those to you.
  Mr. Roosevelt said:

       The lessons of history confirmed by the evidence 
     immediately before me show conclusively that continued 
     dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral 
     disintegration, fundamentally destructive to the national 
     fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a 
     narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is 
     inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation 
     of the traditions of America. The Federal Government must and 
     shall quit this business of relief.

  This is Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. He goes on to say, ``In the days 
before the Great Depression, people were cared for by local efforts.''
  Listen to this carefully. It sounds as though it was written for a 
speech for the new majority's welfare plan of 1996. Specifically the 
idea of sending power out of this city and back to States, communities, 
localities, churches, synagogues, et cetera.
  He says:

       In the days before the Great Depression, people were cared 
     for by local efforts, by states, by counties, by towns, 
     cities, by churches, and by private welfare agencies. It is 
     my thought that in the future they must be cared for as 
     they were before. I stand ready through my personal 
     efforts and through the public influence of the office 
     that I hold, to help these local agencies to get the means 
     necessary to assume this burden.

  Are you listening, President Clinton?


[[Page H8603]]


       Local responsibility can and will be resumed for, after 
     all, common sense tells us that the wealth necessary for this 
     task existed and still exists in the local community, and the 
     dictates of sound administration require that this 
     responsibility be in the first instance a local one.

  John F. Kennedy echoed these fundamental insights into human nature 
in 1962 when he said, ``No lasting solution to the problem of poverty 
can be bought with a welfare check.''
  Finally, in 1931, President Roosevelt said, ``The quicker that a man 
or woman is taken off the dole, the better it is for them during the 
rest of their lives.''
  Over four decades ago we launched a war on poverty with the best of 
intentions. But $5.5 trillion later we have nothing to show put 
poverty, despair, hopelessness, broken families, and a damaged work 
ethic. We have ignored the basic law of nature, that when someone is 
given handout after handout after handout, without having something 
demanded in return, he or she is condemned to a lifestyle of dependency 
and the loss of personal dignity and self-worth.
  Not surprisingly, this is also the root of a similar problem at the 
opposite end of the economic spectrum, children spoiled by affluent 
parents who shower them with material goods, but require nothing in 
return. This is literally the essence of what it means to spoil a 
child. Yet there are also millions of middle class parents everywhere 
in America who require their children to clean their rooms, make their 
beds, complete their homework, and do daily chores in exchange for a 
modest allowance. This teaches responsibility, an understanding that 
money is given in exchange for work, and it bonds a child to his or her 
family in a relationship of mutual commitment and responsibility.
  Congress has just passed a plan that tries to apply the kind of tough 
love, common sense approach to welfare reform that Americans know is 
morally right and have said that they want. The plan is based on the 
simple proposition that welfare recipients should work for their 
benefits, just like you work to support your family and to pay your 
taxes.
  It also recognizes that there will be no real welfare reform without 
tackling the appalling problem of illegitimacy. Fully one in every 
three American babies is born out of wedlock today.
  So I ask the Speaker to commend to the attention of the President 
this bill. I hope that he signs it. I hope it becomes law. It will 
clearly bode well for the future of our country going into the 21st 
century.

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