    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [January 27, 1995]
    [Pages 103-104]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Welfare Reform and an Exchange With Reporters
    January 27, 1995

    Murder Trial of O.J. Simpson

        The President. Is everyone in? This is a big pool today.
        Q. The O.J. trial is not on----
        The President. The O.J. trial hasn't started yet today, has it?
    Thank goodness it's in California or you all wouldn't pay any attention
    to what we're doing. [Laughter]
        Q. Have you been watching it?
        The President. I've seen a little of it. I saw a little of the
    argument last night.

    Welfare Reform and the Economy

        I think all of you know, as I said in my State of the Union, perhaps
    the most important legislative issue Congress will take up this year is
    welfare reform. And I strongly believe we have to end the welfare system
    as we know it. Tomorrow I'm having a working session with Members of the
    Congress, with representatives of State and local government.
        But I wanted to begin this process by meeting with four people here
    who made the decision to choose work over welfare. I thank these women
    for coming in to meet with me, and I thank them for the work they've
    done to make the most of their own lives.
        When we meet tomorrow, we need to be mindful of how this system has
    worked, what works about it, what doesn't work about it, what the human
    impact's going to be, and how we really can foster work and independence
    and good parenting. And that will be the focus of our discussion today
    and the focus of our discussion tomorrow.
        One other point I'd like to make is that today we had the economic
    report on 1994, and we see now that last year we had the strongest
    economic growth in 10 years and the best combined rates of high growth
    and low inflation in 30 years. So we're moving in the right direction--
    or, 25 years. We're moving in the right direction.
        And as we take up these decisions in the Congress over the budget
    and over the things that we are going to do, I would say we have to keep
    in mind that the most important social program is a job. And the most
    important thing that we can do to get to the New Covenant of more
    opportunity and more responsibility is to make sure as we are working to
    legislate and to create more responsibility at the grassroots level, we
    also keep opportunity in mind. And so we've got to keep the economic
    recovery going. We've got to pass responsible welfare reform. And those
    are the two things that I want to emphasize today.
        Q. Mr. President, what worries you about some of the welfare
    remedies that are being proposed by Republicans in Congress?
        The President. Well, some of them seem to say that we should cut
    people off of assistance without regard to what will happen to their
    children and without regard to whether they will have an opportunity to
    get the skills they need to move into the work force. And I think that's
    the thing that bothers me most of all.
        The other thing I wanted to do is to make sure that as we give more
    responsibility to the States, which is something I strongly support--
    we've given two dozen States permission to get out from under Federal
    rules and regulations to try their own remedies; no one of us has all
    the answers to this; nobody does, otherwise the problem would be
    solved--but I want to make sure that we do not do it in a way that
    strongly disadvantages some States and helps others. I think we have to
    be fair to all States. Not every State at every point in time in the
    future will have the same percentage of its citizens eligible for
    welfare.
        The third thing I want to point out is, I think it's important that
    we do not forget that a lot of people who go on public assistance will
    only do it one time in their lives and do it because they hit a bump in
    the road--they have a marriage that breaks up, they lose a job, they
    have some personal misfortune. They're there for 4 or 5 months, 6
    months, and then they get off. Their lives are stabilized; it never
    happens again. I think as we try to deal with the problem of long-term
    welfare dependency, we shouldn't forget and we shouldn't do anything
    that unduly burdens the people that never were in danger of being long-
    term welfare dependent but do need some short-term help.
        Those are the three things that bother me most as we get ready to go
    into this debate.

    [[Page 104]]

    I think that there is a genuine consensus across party lines, regional
    lines, income lines, racial lines that we ought to promote work and
    education and responsible parenting. I just want to make sure we don't
    fall into those other traps.
        Q. Mr. President, what do you think of the balanced budget?
        Q. Would your plan cost more at the beginning, though?
        The President. The plan I presented last year cost somewhere in the
    beginning--I think we underestimated the savings. The more you invest in
    putting people to work, the quicker you will reduce long-term taxpayer
    costs. The more people are put into the work force, even if you have to
    spend some money to do it--for example, we gave Oregon permission to
    take the welfare checks and actually use it by giving it to employers as
    a wage supplement. They wanted to try it, and we said, ``Have at it.''
    I'm going to be very interested to see whether that works. Maybe a lot
    of States will do that. The Government can't afford a lot of public
    service jobs. Maybe the answer is to let the welfare checks go as
    employer supplements, to pay those wage supplements.
        But the point is that however we do it, the more we focus on work
    and giving people a living wage and an opportunity to work, the better
    off we'll be. That's another good argument for raising the minimum wage.

    Balanced Budget Amendment

        Q. Mr. President, what do you think of the House passing the
    balanced budget amendment? Are you for it?
        The President. I'm glad they adopted the Stenholm amendment.
        Q. Are you?
        The President. Absolutely, it makes the bill much better. I still
    believe that if it's going to be presented to the country, they ought to
    tell the country what's involved--what's involved. Let's have--there's a
    right to know here. I'm all for open Government, and I think there's a
    right to know what is involved. Let the people know what is involved,
    both in the short run what will have to be cut and what, if any,
    downsides there are, what's going to happen when we get into a
    recession, how will that be impacted? The people need more information
    about this before the legislators vote on it. If it's going to be sent
    out there, there ought to be a cover sheet showing how it would be done.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:30 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House, prior to a meeting with welfare recipients. A tape was not
    available for verification of the content of these remarks.