[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 30, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H5098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IT TAKES A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS TO GET THE JOB DONE
(Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton ran an ad in his first
presidential campaign back in 1992 in which he said he wanted to end
welfare as we know it. Then what happened? Well, he had a Democrat-
controlled Congress for the first 2 years of his term, and what did
they do on welfare reform? Nothing.
The American people decided it was time for a change in 1994, just 2
years later, and elected a Republican majority in the House for the
first time in 40 years. The Republican Congress passed welfare reform;
the President vetoed it. And then we passed it again, and then he
vetoed it a second time. We finally passed it a third time shortly
before the election, and the President finally signed it into law, and
then he took credit for it.
The liberals had ranted and raved that welfare reform, because it
passed, we would see people starving in the streets. Well, just about
everybody now agrees that the welfare reform has been one of the
greatest success stories in years. Millions of people who were stuck,
who were trapped on welfare are now working and supporting themselves
and their own children instead of relying on their fellow taxpayers to
support them.
Mr. Speaker, it took a Republican Congress to get the job done.
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