Alexander on welfare.  Excerpt from campaign appearance at 
WoodskyÕs Restaurant in Dover, N.H., January 19, 1996.  Recorded and 
transcribed by Joelle Houck.

"As I at uh, a couple of other areas in terms of what we need, let's take 
uh, welfare.  Walking across uh, this state I, I was in Nashua at the end 
of the day at Library Hill, and a young couple came up to me whoÕd just 
been down to, to the uh, to the welfare office.  They were looking for 
some help.  They were twenty-four years old, they had an eleven month old 
baby, the young man uh, had an assistant chef's job, he was making a few 
dollars an hour.  And they sought me out because what they thought they 
heard at the welfare office was that they should separate in order to get 
higher welfare benefits.  Well, that's not what they wanted.  Uh, they 
were shocked by that, and of course, I am too, and you are too, and we 
all ought to be.  But we spend $55 billion a year doing this.  Now, what 
should we do about that?  The Republican senators running for president 
have come up with an eight hundred page Republican bill.  Eight hundred 
pages of Republican rules about welfare from Washington, D.C. to tell you 
what to do.  ThatÕs the difference between them and me.  I would end the 
big welfare programs of Washington, D.C., and replace it with 
neighborhood charity.  I wouldn't just say neighborhood charity that 
might work, I'd take the whole $55 billion that we now spend, and instead 
of sending it to Washington, I'd leave it in Nashville, in Dover, and let 
us take that money, and we give the money to the homeless shelter or to 
the emergency shelter or to the Salvation Army or that young couple.  I 
believe that we can find a way to help them without encouraging them not 
to work and not to marry."

From Alexander Campaign Web Page: Welfare 


Instead of fixing welfare in Washington for the sixth time, we should end
welfare reform in Washington. Let's end welfare as a federal program and
send responsibility for it back to the states, communities, and private
agencies. States are way ahead of Washington on this one. Michigan requires
all welfare recipients to get a job, go to school, or do volunteer community
service. Wisconsin says two years and you're out. Massachusetts says 60
days. California docks welfare checks when kids don't go to school. New
Jersey doesn't pay more to mothers on welfare who have more children. I
would add: no marriage penalty, no added benefits for children born to
unmarried mothers on welfare, a certain end to payments to able-bodied
adults after a set time, jail time for deadbeat dads, no payment to anyone
who commits a crime while on welfare, reduction of welfare for parents whose
children quit school, privatize job finding programs.