Welfare reform

“ I challenge people on welfare to make the most of this opportunity for independence. I challenge American businesses to give people on welfare the chance to move into the work force. I applaud the work of religious groups and others who care for the poor. More than anyone else in our society, they know the true difficulty of the task before us, and they are in a position to help. Every one of us should join them. That is the only way we can make real welfare reform a reality in the lives of the American people. ”

“ My top priority is to get people off welfare and into jobs. I want to replace welfare with work, so people earn a paycheck, not a welfare check. To do that, we have to take some of the money we save and plow it into job training, education, and child care.
I want tough welfare reform, but we've got to be practical. If we're going to make people on welfare work, we have to make it possible for them to work. If we're going to make people self-reliant, we have to make it possible for them to support themselves. We can be tough, but we've got to be practical. ”

“ The new law ended the old welfare system when we said to those on welfare: responsibility is not an option, it must be a way of life.
Now, all the rest of us have our responsibility, indeed, our moral obligation, to make welfare reform work, to make sure that those who now must work, can work. We must move another 2 million more people off the welfare rolls in the next four years. And, frankly, we must recognize that many of these people will be harder to reach and will need more help than those who moved off the rolls in the past four years. ”

“ My approach to welfare reform should not only open the doors of opportunity for our citizens who are on public assistance but also prepare them to walk proudly and competently through those doors. Our goal is to build a system of welfare that will encourage self-respect, build strength of character, and develop to the fullest each individual's potential for a productive, meaningful life. ”

“ I've traveled all across our nations and I've met people whose lives have been improved because of welfare reform. I have heard inspiring stories of hope and dignity and hard work and personal achievement. Yet, there are still millions of Americans trapped in dependence, without jobs and the dignity they bring. And now Congress must take the next necessary steps in welfare reform.
Compassionate welfare reform should encourage strong families. Strong marriages and stable families are good for children. So stable families should be a central aim of welfare policy. ”

“ Now the question I ask about any welfare reform proposal is: Will it help people become self-sufficient and lead a full life, or will it keep them down in a state of dependency? I'm afraid that several Members of Congress have suggested some proposals that, while claiming to require work-related activities, would make staying on welfare more attractive. Their misguided compassion would only bring more people into the welfare system, encourage them to stay on the welfare rolls longer, and discourage work. ”

“ I say to those who are on welfare, and especially to those who have been trapped on welfare for a long time: For too long our welfare system has undermined the values of family and work, instead of supporting them. The Congress and I are near agreement on sweeping welfare reform. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I will not accept any welfare reform bill unless it is geared to making people independent of welfare. Any bill not built around work is not true welfare reform. If Congress presents me with a bill that replaces work with welfare expansion and that places the dignity of self-sufficiency through work out of the reach of Americans on welfare, I will use my veto pen. While others have talked about good jobs at good wages, we've delivered. ”

“ People ought to get paychecks, not welfare checks. But to finish the job on welfare reform, we must press on in our efforts to restore responsibility and make work a way of life again for all Americans. ”

“ More must be done to reduce poverty and dependency and, believe me, nothing is more important than welfare reform. It's now common knowledge that our welfare system has itself become a poverty trap-a creator and reinforcer of dependency-and that's why last year, in my State of the Union Message, I called for an overhaul of our welfare system. ”

“ So I say to Speaker Gingrich and to the leaders of the Senate and the House in both parties, let's work together to get this job done. Let's prove to the American people that we can reform welfare, really reform it, without letting this issue divide us. It is time to end welfare as we know it, to put people to work without punishing children. ”

“ The American people need a welfare system that honors American values: work, family, and personal responsibility. In 1994, and again this year, I sent Congress a sweeping welfare reform plan that would impose strict time limits on how long people can stay on welfare and strict work requirements for people when they are on welfare. ”

“ As of July 1st, just a few days ago, welfare reform has taken effect in all 50 States. This week the old welfare system came to an end. Now a new system based on work is taking its place. This system demands responsibility, but not only from the people who are now required to work but also from every American. ”

“ Next week, the United States House of Representatives is scheduled to debate a welfare reform plan that will touch the lives of millions of Americans. The last time Congress reformed welfare, in 1996, it put millions of Americans on the path to better lives. ”

“ So in the last 3 years, my administration has granted 38 States welfare reform waivers, clearing away Federal rules and regulations to permit States to build effective welfare reforms of their own. The State-based reform we've encouraged has brought work and responsibilityback to the lives of 75 percent of the Americans on welfare. ”

“ But there are still some Americans whom our expansion has passed by-those caught in the welfare trap. Programs that were intended to help poor citizens have instead made them dependent on government checks, unable to break away and become productive workers in a growing economy. In the name of compassion, too many Americans on welfare have been robbed of the one priceless item with which they could build a future: hope. It's time to return hope to those on welfare, which is why our administration has worked to reform the welfare system. ”

“ Weare very close to replacing a broken welfare system with one that requires work, offers opportunity, and demands responsibility. If we work hard and work together we should now be able to pass real welfare reform and do it very soon. ”

“ But we have a moral obligation to do that through welfare reform, working together in our communities, our businesses, our churches and our schools. Every organization which employs people should consider hiring someone off welfare, and every state ought to give those organizations the incentives to do so, so that we can help families reclaim the right to know they can take care of themselves and their own obligations. ”

“ But there's a faster way to bring this welfare reform to the entire Nation. There are bipartisan welfare reform plans sitting in the House and the Senate right now that do what the American people agree welfare reform must do: They require welfare recipients to work; they limit the time people can stay on welfare ”

“ Most of all, compassionate welfare reform must encourage more and more Americans to find the independence of a job. Today, states on average must require work of only 5 percent of adults getting welfare. ”

“ Compassionate welfare reform must allow states greater flexibility in spending welfare money. Today, confusing and conflicting regulations are keeping people from getting help. My proposal would give states the freedom to redesign how federal programs operate in their states. ”

“ First, we cannot delay longer in accomplishing a total reform of our welfare system. When a system penalizes work, breaks up homes, robs recipients of dignity, there is no alternative to abolishing that system and adopting in its place the program of income support, job training, and work incentives which I recommended to the Congress last year. ”

“ Welfare was never meant to be a lifestyle. It was never meant to be a habit. It was never supposed to be passed from generation to generation like a legacy. It's time to replace the assumptions of the welfare state and help reform the welfare system. ”

“ But I do want real welfare reform that requires work, demands responsibility, and provides the child care people need to move off welfare and to be successful as workers and parents.
It's time to get to work so we can give millions of other Americans a new Independence Day. ”

“ We still have a lot more to do — all of us — to make welfare reform a success. Providing child care, helping families move closer to available jobs, challenging more companies to join our welfare-to- work partnership, increasing child support collections from deadbeat parents who have a duty to support their own children. ”

“ Everyone in America benefits from compassionate welfare reform. Former welfare recipients gain new hope and know the independence and dignity of an honest day's work. As our recovery continues, business will need more motivated and trained workers. Good welfare reform laws can break dependency and help the American economy. ”

“ This spring I will send you a comprehensive welfare reform bill that builds on the Family Support Act of 1988 and restores the basic values of work and responsibility. We will say to teenagers if you have a child out of wedlock, we'll no longer give you a check to set up a separate household, we want families to stay together; say to absent parents who aren't paying their child support if you're not providing for your children we'll garnish your wages, suspend your license, track you across state lines, and if necessary make some of you work off what you owe. ”

“ We've worked a long time to reform welfare. Change was demanded by all the American people, especially those on welfare who bore the brunt of the system's failure. For decades now, welfare has too often been a trap, consigning generation after generation to a cycle of dependency. ”