    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [September 16, 1995]
    [Pages 1365-1366]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1365]]

    The President's Radio Address
    September 16, 1995

        Good morning. Last week I spoke with you about what I believe must
    be done to reform our Nation's broken welfare system. I said that real
    welfare reform should reflect the values all of us as Americans share:
    work, personal responsibility, and family. And I challenged the Senate
    to put aside its partisan differences to stand up to ideological
    extremism and to find common ground and higher ground.
        Ever since the 1992 campaign, I've been appealing to Americans to
    join me in an effort to end welfare as we know it. Since I became
    President, I've been working to reform welfare State by State while
    pushing for national action in Congress.
        Our administration has freed 34 States from Federal rules to enable
    them to move people from welfare to work. We've offered all 50 States
    the opportunity to set time limits on welfare, require people to work or
    stay in school, give private employers incentives to work. And it's
    working. The welfare rolls are down, the food stamp rolls are down
    across America. But we still need national action in Congress.
        The votes taken this week by the United States Senate under the
    leadership of a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and moderate
    Republicans give us hope that a conclusion to this effort may only be
    days or weeks away.
        After months of sometimes bitter debate, we are now within striking
    distance of transforming the welfare system in four fundamental ways:
    First, people on welfare will have to work in return for the help they
    receive. Second, no one who can work will be able to stay on welfare
    forever. Third, we will begin to make work possible by providing child
    care for mothers of young children. And fourth, we will put in place the
    toughest child support enforcement measures ever.
        It wasn't always this way. Not long ago, some in Congress wanted to
    punish children for the mistakes of their parents, and some still do.
    Others wanted to pretend that States could require mothers to work
    without the child care they need.
        But this week, an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Senate
    rejected that course and began to insist that welfare reform should be
    about moving people from welfare to work, not simply cutting them off.
    Senators in both parties agreed to provide resources for child care.
        They agreed that States have a responsibility to maintain their own
    efforts to move people from welfare to work and to care for poor
    children and that States should have access to a contingency fund to
    protect against an economic downturn that would put people out of work
    and on welfare through no fault of their own. They also agreed on a
    revolutionary work performance bonus that I have urged that for the
    first time ever will reward States for placing welfare recipients into
    private sector jobs.
        They agreed that instead of just cutting off young unwed mothers, we
    should require them to live at home, stay in school, and turn their
    lives around. And if their homes are unsuitable, this bill provides
    incentives for States to establish second-chance homes, a part of our
    national effort to reduce teen pregnancy and give young people a better
    start in life.
        All these things have long been critical elements of my approach to
    welfare reform, from my service as Governor to my work as President. For
    15 years I have worked on this problem. I know these things will make a
    real difference in moving people from welfare to work.
        Soon, both the House and the Senate will have endorsed all the tough
    child support enforcement provisions I supported last year, including
    saying to parents who owe child support, ``If you can pay up and you
    don't, we'll take your driver's license away.''
        Despite the progress we've made, our work isn't done yet. We'll be
    working hard on this bill over the next few weeks to make sure the right
    incentives are there to move people from welfare to work, to make sure
    children are protected, and that States not only share the problem but
    have the resources they need to get the job done. And we'll be working
    hard to build on the bipartisan progress we made this week. We must not
    let it fall apart when the House and Senate meet to resolve their
    differences.
        Still, there are some on the far right who say they don't want
    welfare reform at all unless it meets all their ideological litmus
    tests. These

    [[Page 1366]]

    extremists want to cut off all help to children whose mothers are poor,
    young, and unmarried, even though the Catholic Church and many
    Republicans have warned that this would lead to more abortions. These
    same people want Washington to impose mandates, like a family cap, even
    though Republican and Democratic Governors alike agree that these
    decisions should be left to the States.
        By an overwhelming bipartisan majority, the Senate showed wisdom and
    courage in rejecting those litmus tests this week. I challenged the
    conference committee of House and Senate Members to do the same. One of
    the primary reasons I ran for President was to reform welfare. I've done
    my best to do it without congressional action, but with the right kind
    of congressional action, we can do the job right. We can advance work
    and personal responsibility and family.
        Finally, we're on the verge of coming to grips with one of the most
    fundamental social problems of our time, moving people from welfare to
    work. Now we must finish the job, and we can't let ideological extremism
    and politics as usual get in the way. Make no mistake: If Congress walks
    away from this bipartisan progress, they will kill welfare reform.
        But we've worked too hard, too long, to let partisan extremism kill
    this effort. Welfare reform will not work and cannot pass unless it's a
    truly bipartisan effort. And it will only become law if it truly
    reflects the spirit of our great Nation and the values of all Americans.
        There's an important lesson in what took place this week. If we can
    find common ground on the issue of welfare reform, surely we can find it
    in our efforts to solve our other problems, especially in our effort to
    balance the budget in a way that will strengthen families and prepare
    our citizens to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st
    century. Let's do welfare reform, then let's do the budget and do it
    right.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
    White House.