[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 18, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WELFARE BILL SIGNALS REVOLUTION

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                           HON. NEWT GINGRICH

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 18, 1996

  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I want to encourage my colleagues to read 
the following column by Dick Williams from the Atlanta Journal 
Constitution. Welfare reform must be implemented if our country is 
going to continue to prosper. The welfare reform bill which was 
recently signed into law is an historical achievement that encourages 
personal responsibility, imposes work requirements and time limits, 
ends welfare for noncitizens and felons, and moves power and 
responsibility back to the States and communities. Local solutions to 
local problems are more effective than wasteful and inefficient Federal 
bureaucracies. As Dick Williams points out, the welfare system is 
destroying the Nation by warping the behavior of millions. It must 
change and that change is better managed by the governments closest to 
the people:

                    Welfare Bill Signals Revolution

                           (By Dick Williams)

       History was made this week, the sort that will go in the 
     textbooks. President Clinton's decision to spit in the face 
     of his party's history and sign the Republican welfare reform 
     bill means the beginning of the welfare state's going out-of-
     business sale.
       It also answers a question first raised two years ago when 
     Newt Gingrich and his Republicans won control of the people's 
     House. Was it to be a revolution? Or was it simply a modest 
     counterrevolution--one that would trim Democratic excesses?
       The answer is revolution.
       After Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the ascendancy of the 
     nondemocratic elites in Washington, Congress has decided to 
     trust the states to care for the poor, just as the Founding 
     Fathers intended.
       Three times Congress, with substantial Democratic support, 
     tried to end welfare as we know it. Twice Clinton refused.
       But this president, we know now, will stop at nothing to be 
     reelected. Being re-elected was far more important than party 
     principle, the so-called 60-year-old guarantees to the poor 
     (with an outcome the New Deal neither envisioned nor would 
     have countenanced).
       As we in Atlanta emerge from the emotional peaks and 
     valleys of the Olympics, the welfare picture will begin to 
     emerge. The cynicism of Clinton and his spouse, the former 
     head of the Children's Defense Fund, will be ever more 
     apparent.
       The Clintons know we are a conservative nation. They know 
     candidate Clinton's election is inseparable from his pledge 
     to end welfare as we know it. That statement alone made him a 
     different kind of Democrat. He had to spend three years in 
     office proving his campaign was just a trick.
       In the meantime, Gingrich had put flesh on the vague 
     Clinton bone. ``It is impossible to maintain civilization,'' 
     he said over and over, ``with 12-year-olds having babies, 15-
     year-olds killing each other, 17-year-olds dying of AIDS and 
     18-year-olds getting diplomas they can't even read.''
       Specifics won, stabbing at the national mood. Now with 
     Clinton's promise to sign the transfer of welfare to the 
     states, time limits for welfare recipients and requirements 
     for work after two years on the dole, the most important part 
     of the Contract With America is about to become law.
       ``Where is the sense of decency?'' railed U.S. Rep. John 
     Lewis (D-Ga.). ``Where is the heart of this Congress? This 
     bill is mean; it is base; it is downright lowdown.''
       That is Lewis saying that the Democratic governor of 
     Georgia and the Democratic speaker of the Georgia House and 
     the Democratic General Assembly can't be counted on to care 
     for the less fortunate.
       Once the Olympic flame has moved on, the Centennial Park 
     bomber is caught and the tragedy of TWA Flight 800 is 
     resolved, such stories will pick up steam. It will take 
     strong will to withstand the misfortunes of others, but the 
     bigger picture is essential. The welfare system was 
     destroying the nation by warping the behavior of millions. It 
     must change, and that change is better managed by the 
     governments closest to the people.

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