Speech #970166798

These children may even grow up with a poor selfimage as they watch their friends parents working while their own parents are idle. In these ways. the system denies people the opportunity to lift themselves and their families up into the mainstream of American society. Our elaborate welfare system. in a sense. also denies many new immigrants the opportunities of our own forebears. Farmers in my State often joke about how they tend to lose their illegal workers once they become citizens. Of course. the fact that many of these workers quit and go on public assistance is no joke to either the farmers or the workers. These immigrants. like our own forebears. came to this country looking for better lives for themselves and their families. They knew that with a lot of hard work. and a little luck. they too. could have the opportunity to live the American dream. Yet through a system which encourages persons to sit at home rather than take lowpaying jobs. our Government leads these new Americans into the welfare trap. While our own forebears had the incentives to do the work necessary to start up the economic ladder. today we provide disincentives for new immigrants to do the same. We cannot simply stand back and watch our welfare system swallow up millions of Americans into the welfare trap. My proposal represents decisive and positive action by eliminating one of the disincentives which lead the unemployed into this trap.