Second generation welfare: Responsibility and child support
Vice President Al Gore supports the measures passed under the 1996 welfare reform effort. He has called for an increased reliance on religious and other volunteer organizations to help needy. Gore has proposed a “second generation” of welfare reform to
require all fathers who owe child support to pay up or be required to go to work to support their children. Gore proposed “parental responsibility accounts” for families on welfare. The vice president also has proposed federal grants for states that
created successful programs for finding work for unemployed parents who owed child support. He has called for policies that would make it easier for credit card companies to deny new credit cards to parents who were delinquent in child support payments.
Source: NY Times
Jun 5, 2000
Proposes sweeping Federal programs, $Billions, for needy
Gore talks about the poverty from which his parents sprang, but he does not talk much about poverty today, except in broad generalities. What he does is propose sweeping new Federal programs to help the disabled, the sick, the poor, and other needy
groups. He pledged, for example, to bring about “the largest increase in special education ever,” which he later conceded would cost billions of dollars. Clinton’s declaration that “the era of big government is over” seemed long ago and far away.
Source: New York Times, p. A12, col. 5-6
Oct 11, 1999
Set goals & provide tools to reach goals locally
Government that tries to be an omnipresent welfare state will only leave its people in a catatonic state. Smaller, more empowering government unleashes the energy of ordinary families & communities. [Our] welfare reforms set national standards for moving
people from welfare to work, but then let states & local communities shape the reforms that work best for them. Government [should] set goals, & provide the tools to reach them-leaving a vital role for churches, civic institutions, & families.
Source: Speech at International REGO Conference, Washington DC
Jan 14, 1999
Click here for 14 main quotations from Al Gore on Welfare & Poverty.
