Rudy Giuliani: Welfare Reform Bill Does More harm Than good

NYC Mayoral Archives ^ | 11-11-1996 | Rudy Giuliani

[TitansAFC]

---"There are aspects to the Welfare Reform Bill that, as just a matter of policy, I disagree with and I think could pose very serious problems, and although I do think the bill does some good, in the end I believe it does more harm than good.

But actually, what I would like to discuss, at least in terms of the remarks I prepared, is the area in which the Welfare Reform Bill raises serious constitutional questions."---

---"I believe this provision has a good chance of being overturned by the Court because it's unconstitutional, and I hope we prevail."---

[Peach]

Internationally recognized economic advisor M ichael Boskin, Hoover Institute:

Dr. Michael J. Boskin said, “I am volunteering to join Rudy’s team because, in a talented field of qualified candidates, Rudy Giuliani stands out for his rare blend of intelligence, highly successful experience, leadership and vision. His eight years as Mayor of New York have rightly been judged “the most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last fifty years”. He trimmed bureaucracy, controlled spending, repeatedly cut taxes, and radically reduced crime and welfare rolls. Not surprisingly, New York, which had been in a downward spiral of rampant crime and fiscal chaos, experienced a renaissance.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1791600/posts?page=1

Newt Gingrich:
"He is much stronger than anyone could have predicted six months ago," said former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich from Georgia. "New York is four times safer than it used to be. It's one of the greatest achievements of government capability (that's fiscal responsibility for the dimbulbs around here) in the 20th century. And Rudy just has to go out and say, 'This is who I am. If you think the world's dangerous, and you need a tough guy … that's me.' "

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1786270/posts



George Will:
As George Will said on “This Week,” “His eight years as mayor of New York were the most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last 50 years, on welfare and crime particularly." Giuliani, more than any other candidate (Romney comes the closest) has the record of taking on major institutions and reforming them.

Human Events Reporter:
The rebirth of New York City, the most visible urban achievement in the 20th century is the work of the person now dubbed America’s mayor. For the millions of Americans who live in New York and the millions more who work or whose livelihood has been affected by its revival the contrast between the pre and post Giuliani years could not be more striking.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780064/posts

Bill Simon:

And when you talk about issues related to fiscal conservatism, which are important to Rudy, I don't know anybody in the public arena who has cut taxes 23 times as Rudy did when he was mayor of New York; who has shrunk the size of government, which he did when he was mayor of New York; reduced the welfare rolls by over 50 percent, which he did when he was mayor of New York. And that's not going into reducing crime by 65% and many other things that he did while mayor in a situation that, before he became mayor, was widely regarded as the second toughest job in American politics, and was widely regarded as an ungovernable situation.

I think he did an extraordinary job as Mayor of New York in a Democrat-controlled environment, and being able to function as a fiscal conservative in that Democrat-controlled environment is an amazing achievement.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1786368/posts

[Mr. K]

welfare roles were cut, but welfare JOBS (the people employed in the welfare programs administration) stayed the same..

how is that?

[TitansAFC]

I'm sorry. What, exactly, does this have to do with Rudy calling Welfare Reform Unconstitutional?

[MadIvan]

This is a correct quotation:

The tenth amendment reads: "The power not delegated to the United States by the Constitution not prohibited by it to the States is reserved to the States respectively or to the people." So what the Constitution says is unless a power is given to the national government, to the federal government, and unless you define those powers in the enumerated powers of the federal government, those powers are retained for the states for their local subdivisions and for the people.

The correct way to undo abortion is precisely through the application of the Tenth Amendment; overturn Roe vs. Wade and make it subject to a series of state referenda, much like what happened with gay marriage.

Note: Rush Limbaugh also stated that this was the correct approach in "The Way Things Ought to Be". As Rudy appears to be keen on the Tenth Amendment - wonderful, this helps.

Ivan

[Iwo Jima]

Please respond to the article instead of canned spam which I and most other people don't even bother to read.

Oh, and please do not use your usual insult non-responses such as "you're on drugs," "you're drinking," "you're off your meds," etc. Very lame and so overdone by you when you can't debate a point, which is often.

[El Laton Caliente]

Why is that man even running with a (R) behind his name?

[Peach]

No matter what he called it, this is what he did:

Giuliani decided to launch a welfare revolution, moving recipients from the dole to a job. Mindful that for years the city’s welfare bureaucracy had focused on signing up new recipients (Lindsay’s welfare chief had been nicknamed “Come And Get It” Ginsberg), the Giuliani administration first set out to recertify everyone in the city’s own home-relief program to eliminate fraud. In less than a year, the rolls of the program (for able-bodied adults not eligible for federal welfare programs) declined by 20 percent, as the city discovered tens of thousands of recipients who were actually employed, living outside the city, or providing false Social Security numbers.

Giuliani then instituted a work requirement for the remaining home-relief recipients, mostly men, obliging them to earn their checks by cleaning city parks and streets or doing clerical work in municipal offices for 20 hours a week. Welfare advocates vigorously objected, and one advocate pronounced the workfare program “slavery.” The New York Times editorialized that most people on home relief were incapable of work.

Giuliani persisted, and when Congress finally passed welfare reform in 1996, giving states and cities broad powers to refocus the giant, federally funded welfare program for mothers and children, Giuliani applied many of the same kinds of reforms. He hired as welfare commissioner Jason Turner, the architect of welfare reform in Wisconsin, which had led the nation in putting welfare recipients back to work. Turner promptly converted the city’s grim welfare intake offices into cheerful and optimistic job centers, where counselors advised welfare recipients on how to write a resumé and provided them with skills assessment and a space they could use to look for work.

By 1999, the number of welfare recipients finding work had risen to more than 100,000 annually, and the welfare rolls had dropped by more than 600,000. It took steadfast courage to win those gains. “The pressure on Rudy during these years was enormous,” says Richard Schwartz, a Giuliani policy advisor. “The advocates and the press trained their sights on us, just waiting for something to go wrong in these workfare programs.”

As part of Giuliani’s quintessentially conservative belief that dysfunctional behavior, not our economic system, lay at the heart of intergenerational poverty, he also spoke out against illegitimacy and the rise of fatherless families. A child born out of wedlock, he observed in one speech, was three times more likely to wind up on welfare than a child from a two-parent family. “Seventy percent of long-term prisoners and 75 percent of adolescents charged with murder grew up without fathers,” Giuliani told the city. He insisted that the city and the nation had to reestablish the “responsibility that accompanies bringing a child into the world,” and to that end he required deadbeat fathers either to find a private-sector job or to work in the city’s workfare program as a way of contributing to their child’s upbringing. But he added that changing society’s attitude toward marriage was more important than anything government could do: “[I]f you wanted a social program that would really save these kids, . . . I guess the social program would be called fatherhood.”

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26604

[Long Island Pete]

Why is that man even running with a (R) behind his name?

In order to help him spell his first name. Thats all I can think of.

[Alberta's Child]

As I pointed out yesterday on another thread, these people (especially Boskin) may all be full of crap and are really just repeating the same stupid talking point. If they really believed so strongly in the success of Giuliani's administration, they would have made these statements years ago.

[JohnnyZ]

Why is that man even running with a (R) behind his name?

All the other liberals are doing it.

[sofaman]

um..because he is a Republican....like it or not.

[EagleUSA]

It's a provision that attempts to reverse an executive order that New York City has had in existence since 1988 which basically says that New York City will create a zone of protection for illegal and undocumented immigrants who are seeking the protection of the police or seeking medical services because they are sick or attempting to or actually putting their children in public schools so they can be educated.
-----
It is clear that Rudy has no regard for the immigration laws of this country, nor the will of the people when it comes to the presence, and supporting of, illegal aliens in this country. Certainly, he would NOT be a President that would finally close our borders to illegal entry, and would pander to the millions of tax-sucking, law-breaking illegals already here. He is a radical SOCIAL liberal.

[cripplecreek]

Why is that man even running with a (R) behind his name?

Because he's counting on obedient party lapdogs to carry him through.

[MadIvan]

I seem to recall there was a brand of conservatism called "states rights conservatives", who thought the Federal Government was far exceeding its constitutional mandate. The weapon they brandished against this encroachment was the Tenth Amendment. This speech is evidence that Rudy has some commonalities with these people.

Let's move next to the heart of the speech - he pointed out how ineffective the Federal Government had been in deporting illegals. It's important to note that his policies are reaction to the Federal Government's inability to sort this problem.

Regards, Ivan

[areafiftyone]

- Rudy launched a welfare revolution, removing illegal recipients, cutting the rolls by 20% the first year alone and dropping the welfare rolls by 600,000 over the course of his plan.
NY POST
Mayor Giuliani Delivers Eighth And Final “State Of The City” Address
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Fiscal Record: 1993-2001 – Deroy Murdock – National Review

- Rudy launched a work requirement program for the remaining welfare recipients. the NY Times called it slavery.
Mayor Giuliani Delivers Eighth And Final “State Of The City” Address
NY Times
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Fiscal Record: 1993-2001 – Deroy Murdock – National Review

- Rudy constantly spoke out against illegitimacy and fatherless families. One of many things that Rudy said on the subject was the following: " If you wanted a social program that would really save these kids, . I guess the social program would be called fatherhood.
" Rudy Giuliani “State of the City” Address
Mayor Giuliani Delivers Eighth And Final “State Of The City” Address
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Fiscal Record: 1993-2001 – Deroy Murdock – National Review

[B4Ranch]

Giuliani/Clinton/Dem vs. GOP Platform Comparison
Issue	Giuliani	Clinton	Dem Platform	GOP Platform
Abortion on Demand	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Partial Birth Abortion	SupportsOpposed NY ban	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Roe v. Wade	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Taxpayer Funded Abortions	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Embryonic Stem Cell Research	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Federal Marriage Amendment	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes Defined at state level	Supports
Gay Domestic Partnership/ Civil Unions	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Openly Gay Military	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Defense of Marriage Act	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Amnesty for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Special Path to Citizenship for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Tough Penalties for Employers of Illegal Aliens	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Sanctuary Cities/ Ignoring Immigration Law	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Protecting 2nd Amendment	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes Supports bans	Supports
Confiscating Guns	Supports Confiscated as mayor. Even bragged.	Supports	Supports Supports bans	Opposes
'Assault' Weapons Ban	Supports	Supports	Supports
Frivolous Lawsuits Against Gun Makers	Supports Filed One Himself	Supports		Opposes
Gun Registration/Licenses	Supports	Supports		Opposes
War in Afghanistan	Supports	Supports Voted for it	Supports	Supports
War in Iraq	Supports	Supports Voted for it	Supports Weak support	Supports
Patriot Act	Supports	Supports Voted for it 2001 & 2006	Opposes	Supports

[Peach]

You're right and this was widely discussed at our GOP meeting two months ago.

[ClaireSolt]

The last I heard, we are still spending the same money, but we are spending it on things like child care to support former welfare recipients and help them get on their feet. That requires more individualized attention than just sending them a little check every month.

[AZRepublican]

Sound's like Rudy is a follower of paul madison.