State of Iowa Archives: on Welfare & Poverty

Jim Carlin: Goal of welfare system should be keeping families together

Mike Huckabee: Poor people don't know how to get out of the hole

Tom Fiegen: Address childhood hunger & childhood poverty

There is something profoundly wrong when we have a proliferation of millionaires at the same time as millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages and we have the highest childhood poverty rate of any developed country on earth.

Alison Grimes: Shameful to oppose food stamp program during recession

"It just largely became a food-stamp bill with production agriculture kind of stuck on as an afterthought," McConnell told reporters. He also voiced support for work requirements for many recipients.

Grimes didn't provide details about what level of funding she would support for the food-stamp program. She said she hoped the negotiations would produce a comprehensive bill that includes food -stamp funding.

Mitch McConnell: Opposed Farm Bill due to too-generous food stamp program

"It just largely became a food-stamp bill with production agriculture kind of stuck on as an afterthought," McConnell told reporters. He also voiced support for work requirements for many recipients, saying it could spur more economic productivity. "Why would anybody object, if they can be given employment, to being productive?" McConnell said. "At the same time, you may be eligible for some food-stamp assistance. We need to move in the direction of having a vibrant, productive, expanding economy. And you don't do that by making it excessively easy to be non-productive."

Sam Clovis: Don't trading spending cuts for entitlement reform

Rick Santorum: No compromise on core principles; compromise on all else

A: Absolutely not, because it's not the problem. This is where leadership comes in. You know, you need to stand firm on these things. But you can't stan and say you give me everything I want or I'll vote no. You have to find the principles, like I did on welfare reform. I said three things--to end the federal entitlement, which we did. We wanted to require work, which we did. And we wanted to put a time limit on welfare. We did those 3 things. We compromised on everything else. I didn't get everything I wanted, but I got the core of what I wanted and we transformed welfare. You need leaders, you need people who are good at leadership, not showmanship. You go to the American public and you lay out the facts. [On the budget crisis], we need to get the economy growing. That doesn't mean taking more money out of it, that means creating energy jobs, creating manufacturing jobs. And my plan will do that.

Dennis Kucinich: Address poverty with full employment economy & social reform

A: In Cleveland we face a situation where there is a massive amount of foreclosures, rising unemployment about around particularly around African American households and some Latinos. Here is my plan first of all. A full employment economy. A Roosevelt type WPA program that puts everyone who is able to work back to work with a living wage. Second a not for profit health care system. Third, universal pre-kindergarten. Four, universal college education. So we need to make economic reform the fundamental driving force in this country and a president percentage stands for the principle of a rising tide lifts all boats not trickle down economics.

Hillary Clinton: Partner with faith based community in empowerment zones

A: In New York City we have seen the transformation of Harlem from a combination of government action creating an empowerment zone, the private sector coming in to take advantage of that and an explosion of entrepreneurial dynamism. We’ve also seen the faith based community like Abyssinians & others that have been partners with it and of course we’ve seen a lot of hip hop participants and leaders taking advantage of that. So we need this partnership. We need this partnership between the public and private sector and the not-for-profit and faith-based sector. And we need to make sure that young people have a particular stake in what we are going to present. That’s what I’ve worked on in NYC and in upstate NY and I intend to put that to work when I’m president.

Jack Hatch: More TANF; more job training programs

Hatch indicated he supports the following principles regarding welfare:
• Increase employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
• Provide tax incentives to businesses that hire welfare recipients.
• Provide child care for welfare recipients who work.
• Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.
• Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to expand state services to include the working poor.

George W. Bush: ‘Armies of compassion’ are next step of welfare reform