John Lewis Staunchly Opposed The Clintons’ Gutting Of Welfare In 1996 - Salon

[WillyT]

John Lewis staunchly opposed the Clintons’ gutting of welfare in 1996, yet now endorses Hillary and slams Sanders
Rep. John Lewis continues to support Hillary for president despite her support for controversial welfare bill
Ben Norton - Salon
Monday, Feb 22, 2016 12:49 PM PST

<snip>

“How can any person of faith, of conscience, vote for a bill that puts a million more kids into poverty?” Rep. John Lewis asked on the House floor in July 1996. “What does it profit a great nation to conquer the world, only to lose its soul?” Lewis was speaking in opposition to the so-called “welfare reform” overseen by the Clintons. Among Bill’s 1992 campaign promises was to “end welfare as we know it.” In 1996, with the steadfast help of Hillary, he fulfilled that promise.

President Bill Clinton proudly signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which was based on legislation first proposed by Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; Hillary, meanwhile, enthusiastically lobbied on behalf of the bill. The Clintons’ welfare reform axed the Aid to Families with Dependent Children federal assistance program, which the Social Security Act had created six decades before, and replaced the New Deal program with the drastically weaker Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

The Intercept reported on Lewis’ dissent in a piece detailing how current Republican presidential candidate John Kasich and the Clintons collaborated on the legislation, which helped double extreme poverty in the U.S.: https://theintercept.com/2016/02/13/john-kasich-and-the-clintons-collaborated-on-law-that-helped-double-extreme-poverty-in-america/

As Lewis warned, a scientific study released at the time found that the gutting of welfare would push more than a million children into poverty. Three senior officials on welfare policy resigned from the Clinton administration in response to the legislation. Peter Edelman, a legal scholar and longtime friend of the Clintons who served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services and quit in protest, said he “personally handed” a copy of the study to the president.

Edelman told The New York Times “I have devoted the last 30-plus years to doing whatever I could to help in reducing poverty in America. I believe the recently enacted welfare bill goes in the opposite direction.”

In “The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done,” Edelman’s 1997 article in The Atlantic, he warned that “the bill that President Clinton signed is not welfare reform. It does not promote work effectively, and it will hurt millions of poor children by the time it is fully implemented.” He called it “the major milestone in the political race to the bottom.”

Reflecting on the Clinton-backed legislation on the House floor, Lewis said “The bill we are considering today is a bad bill. I will vote against it and I urge all people of conscience to vote against it. It is a bad bill because it penalizes children for the actions of their parents. This bill, Mr. Speaker, will put 1 million more children into poverty.

“Where is the compassion, where is the sense of decency, where is the heart of this Congress? This bill is mean, it is base, it is downright low down,” he continued, adding “This bill is an abdication of our responsibility and an abandonment of our morality. It is wrong, just plain wrong.”

Two decades later, nevertheless...

<snip>

More: http://www.salon.com/2016/02/22/john_lewis_staunchly_opposed_the_clintons_gutting_of_welfare_in_1996_yet_now_endorses_hillary_and_slams_sanders/

[AzDar]

1. K & R

[nashville_brook]

2. weird.

[Gregorian]

3. Like what's with the endorsement?

Weird.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

4. Follow the money.

Always follow the money.

[Gregorian]

12. I have no problem with that part. I'm curious about the exchange, if there is one.

It's no doubt something very important to John Lewis, and I can trust that. But then again, it might also be like 2008 when I believe he was for Clinton before supporting Obama. Go figure.

[LovingA2andMI]

13. It's Always About The Money....

[roguevalley]

25. also, hrc and bill are famous 4 paybacks

[Waiting For Everyman]

5. I wonder what happened between then and now?

Or was it just words then?

[Ferd Berfel]

6. ...and now they're best buddies

yep...follow the money.....

[oasis]

8. Do you really want to go there?

[LovingA2andMI]

14. Why Not?

[jhart3333]

16. Go where? That money and power make for strange bedfellows?

Next you're going to tell me that everyone does it. But I have a fine counterexample for you: Bernie.

[zentrum]

17. Good one.

[thereismore]

7. Money, position, accolades. Why mess with a good thing? nt

[thereismore]

9. “What does it profit a great nation to conquer the world, only to lose its soul?”

Let me modify it for you, Rep. Lewis: “What does it profit a great man to achieve the heights of power, only to lose his soul?”

[Fuddnik]

19. It depends how much you profit from selling your soul.

[thereismore]

35. That's cold.

[bigwillq]

10. Guess he also has a weathervane on top of his house

[Broward]

11. If you were to swap the policy positions and actions of Hillary and Bernie

over the years, do you think there's any chance that most of those now endorsing Hillary would be for Bernie? There are clearly other factors at play here.

[HeartoftheMidwest]

15. Truth:

"Politics makes strange bedfellows."

[Feeling the Bern]

18. The wind changed direction.

Black people today apparently don't mean as much as black people in 1996. 20 years of that God awful welfare reform shit has changed the landscape.

[99th_Monkey]

20. KnR !!

[Jitter65]

21. Yes he did and Bernie voted FOR it! So what is the point you are making?

That a single issue should be the dividing point on something as big as the Presidential election?

[Skid Rogue]

26. UGH!

A lot of good people held their nose and voted for that one. Those were strange days indeed.

[99th_Monkey]

22. Lewis can say he didn't see Bernie, but he can't say he didn't see this. nt

[EndElectoral]

23. An extremely shameful act, and Lewis selective memory doesn't serve him well.

[Skid Rogue]

24. Yeah, that was bad. Most Democrats opposed it.

I watched Hillary unveil the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt in Riverside Park, NYC. Somebody had strung up a huge banner between apartment windows that said, "Eleanor would have saved Welfare."

It was hotly debated, at the time. I don't even think the Clintons liked it very much.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. Interesting quote.

“What does it profit a great nation to conquer the world, only to lose its soul?”

[LiberalArkie]

28. I personally believe that you could take Jesus Christ right off the mountain give him an easy job

paying a million or more a year, preaching the same things. And in short order some of his activism would change to just board meetings and the occasion tv show when some big protest happened.

I still say that they thing in Missouri (Michael Brown) have been going on for years, where were the big activists before that.
In New York City the killing of non-whites have been going on forever, where have all the activists been.
Pick any state, they seem to only show up when the cameras are there, not when poor people are being gunned down.


To Add: I think I know of only 1 public figure that has been out protesting for the poor when there were no network cameras present.

[MsLeopard]

30. Would that one public figure, by any chance, be

Bernie!?!? Love him!!

[MisterP]

29. and that's the most dispiriting part of all of this: not just that they're backing policies they

rightfully and righteously damned, but that their status as civil-rights lions is MUTILATED, turned into a campaigning tool, a way for party enforces to bludgeon anyone who might bring up the issues supposedly at hand

[SleeplessinSoCal]

31. What do you mean "Clintons"?

She is not he. And there is no way to compare what is going on now to a POTUS elected with less than 50% of the popular vote - thanks to Ross Perot.

[restorefreedom]

32. i don't even know what to say to this. nt

[Hoyt]

33. Yes, but the Clintons didn't turn on him and throw him under the bus.

[WillyT]

34. I'm Not Sure What That Even Means...

[WillyT]

37. Kick !!!