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Bob Kerrey on Welfare & Poverty
Former Democratic Senator (NE)
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Opposed Clinton plan because it didn't address entitlements
Kerrey had seemed a natural pick for Clinton's running mate, but news leaked that Hillary would not hear of it--reports that Clinton denied less than convincingly. After Clinton's economic plan was unveiled, Kerrey said he opposed it because it didn't
aggressively take on entitlement programs. Clinton had taken Kerrey out jogging on June 22, shortly before the first Senate vote. As a half-joke, Kerrey wore a large printed sign taped to his T-shirt: "Hillary knows best."
Clinton had told Kerrey that if his plan didn't pass the Senate and get to conference, it would hurt him at the upcoming Tokyo economic summit. "I appreciate that there's a lot about it you don't like,"
Clinton said, noting that the plan could be improved in conference. "I hope you can give me a vote because I need it to go to the G-7 meeting." Kerrey had acquiesced and voted to send it to conference.
Source: The Agenda, by Bob Woodward, p.286
, Jun 6, 1994
Voted NO on welfare block grants.
Replacement of federal welfare guarantee with block grants to the states.
Status: Conf Rpt Agreed to Y)78; N)21; NV)1
Reference: Conference Report on H.R. 3734;
Bill H.R. 3734
; vote number 1996-262
on Aug 1, 1996
Voted YES on eliminating block grants for food stamps.
Vote to not allow states the option of getting food stamp funds as a block grant administered by the state, rather than as a federal program, if they meet certain criteria.
Reference:
Bill S 1956
; vote number 1996-218
on Jul 23, 1996
Voted NO on allowing state welfare waivers.
Vote on a procedural motion to allow consideration of an amendment to express the Sense of Congress that the president should approve the waivers requested by states that want to implement welfare reform.
Reference:
Bill S.1956
; vote number 1996-208
on Jul 19, 1996
Voted NO on welfare overhaul.
Approval of an overhaul on the federal welfare system.
Status: Bill Passed Y)87; N)12; NV)1
Reference: Contract w/ America (Welfare Refm);
Bill H.R. 4
; vote number 1995-443
on Sep 19, 1995
Finish welfare reform by moving able recipients into jobs.
Kerrey adopted the manifesto, "A New Agenda for the New Decade":
Help Working Families Lift Themselves from Poverty
In the 1990s, Americans resolved to end welfare dependency and forge a new social compact on the basis of work and reciprocal responsibility. The results so far are encouraging: The welfare rolls have been cut by more than half since 1992 without the social calamities predicted by defenders of the old welfare entitlement. People are more likely than ever to leave welfare for work, and even those still on welfare are four times more likely to be working. But the job of welfare reform will not be done until we help all who can
work to find and keep jobs -- including absent fathers who must be held responsible for supporting their children.
In the next decade, progressives should embrace an even more ambitious social goal -- helping every working family lift itself from poverty. Our new social compact must reinforce work, responsibility, and family.
By expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, increasing the supply of affordable child care, reforming tax policies that hurt working families, making sure absent parents live up to their financial obligations, promoting access to home ownership and other wealth-building assets, and refocusing other social policies on the new goal of rewarding work, we can create a new progressive guarantee: No American family with a full-time worker will live in poverty.
Goals for 2010 Finish the job of welfare reform by moving all recipients who can work into jobs. - Cut the poverty rate in half.
- Double child support collections and require every father who owes child support to go to work to pay it off.
Source: The Hyde Park Declaration 00-DLC3 on Aug 1, 2000
Page last updated: Oct 10, 2012