[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[July 27, 1996]
[Pages 1208-1209]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1208]]


Statement on Welfare Reform
July 27, 1996

    Good morning. Today I want to talk with you about welfare reform, 
but first I want to ask you to join with me in celebrating the sixth 
anniversary of a landmark civil rights law that is breaking down 
barriers for millions of our fellow Americans, the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. I'm joined today by many of the advocates for people 
with disabilities who made this the law of the land. Because we have 
enforced this law vigorously and with common sense, people with 
disabilities now have access to places they never did before, from 
classrooms to restaurants.
    Since 1991, 800,000 people with severe disabilities have joined the 
work force. Because of Federal education efforts, tens of thousands of 
children with disabilities have better educational opportunities. 
Because of Medicaid, health care for Americans with disabilities can be 
provided without bankrupting their families and in a way that promotes 
their independence.
    That's a big reason why I oppose repealing Medicaid's guarantee of 
health care to Americans with disabilities. All these efforts are good 
for them, but they're good for all the rest of us, too. So today let us 
all rededicate ourselves to the fight against disability discrimination.
    This morning I want to focus on the great welfare debate now 
unfolding in Washington and all across our country. This debate is 
really about our fundamental American values, about expanding 
opportunity, demanding responsibility, and coming together as a 
community. For decades our welfare system has undermined the basic 
values of work and responsibility and family, trapping generation after 
generation of people in poverty and dependency, exiling millions of our 
fellow citizens from the world of work that gives structure, meaning, 
and dignity to our lives. It instills the wrong values, sends the wrong 
signals, giving children who have children a check to set up house on 
their own, letting millions of fathers walk away from their 
responsibility while taxpayers pick up the tab.
    This system does the most harm to the people it was meant to help. 
Children who are born to a life on welfare are more likely to drop out 
of school, fall afoul of the law, become teen mothers or teen fathers, 
and raise their own children on welfare themselves.
    I just don't believe that a nation as rich in opportunity as ours is 
willing to leave millions of people trapped in a permanent under class. 
We can't leave anyone behind. In fact, what I want for poor families on 
welfare is what I want for middle class families and upper income 
families as well: I want people to be able to succeed at home and at 
work. That will make America stronger and their lives richer.
    When I ran for President 4 years ago, I was very clear we must end 
welfare as we know it. And during my time as President, I've used all 
the powers at my disposal to achieve that goal. We've worked with 41 
States to launch 69 welfare-to-work experiments. For fully 75 percent of 
people on welfare, the rules already have changed. The New York Times 
called it a quiet revolution in welfare.
    I've taken executive action to require teen mothers on welfare to 
stay in school, requiring mothers to identify the fathers of their 
children so we can hold every man accountable for the support he owes 
his family, ordering Federal employees to pay child support, putting 
wanted posters of deadbeat parents in post offices and on the Internet. 
I directed the Attorney General to crack down on people who owe child 
support who cross State lines.
    All these efforts are paying off at the national and local level. 
Today there are 1.3 million fewer people on welfare than on the day I 
took office. Child support collections are up 40 percent, to $11 
billion. Paternity identification is up 40 percent, too. We're mending 
our social fabric and moving in the right direction.
    Now we have an opportunity to finish the job and pass national 
welfare reform legislation. Real welfare reform should impose time 
limits and require work and provide child care, too, so that people can 
go to work without hurting their children. It should strengthen our 
child support enforcement laws even more and do more to protect 
children. I've challenged Congress to send me bipartisan legislation 
that reflects these principles. For example, if everyone in America who 
owes child support legally and

[[Page 1209]]

can pay it did so, 800,000 women and children would leave the welfare 
rolls tomorrow.
    Now, 6 months ago the Republican majority in Congress sent me 
welfare legislation it had backwards. It was soft on work and tough on 
children, failing to provide child care and health care so that people 
can move from welfare to work without hurting their children, imposing 
deep and unacceptable cuts in school lunch, child welfare, and help for 
disabled children. That bill came to me twice, and I vetoed it twice.
    Since then, I'm pleased to report, there has been considerable 
bipartisan progress toward real welfare reform. Many of the worst 
proposals I objected to have been taken out. Many of the improvements I 
asked for have been put in. The legislation has steadily improved as 
it's moved through Congress. Earlier this week, by an overwhelming 
bipartisan majority, the Senate passed a welfare reform bill that does 
provide health care and child care and took some important strides to 
protect our children. But we still have more work to do to promote work 
and protect children, though we've come a long way in this debate and we 
mustn't go back.
    To those who have doubts about any welfare reform, I say we will 
never lift children out of poverty and dependency by preserving a failed 
system that keeps them there. And to those who would undo the progress 
of recent weeks by sending me another extremist bill like the ones I 
vetoed, I'd say we can only transform this broken system if we do right 
by our children and put people to work so they can earn a paycheck, not 
draw a welfare check. That's the only kind of welfare reform I can sign.
    We have a chance to make history. Our welfare system has nagged at 
our national conscience for far too long. And if we'll put politics 
aside and work together, we can once again make welfare what it was 
meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: This statement was prepared for use as the President's radio 
address on July 27 but was not broadcast.