Now, because of the President's leadership and with the support of a majority of the Democrats in Congress, national welfare reform is going to make work and responsibility the law of the land. Thanks to President Clinton and the Democrats, the new welfare bill includes the health care and child care people need so they can go to work confident their children will be cared for. Thanks to President Clinton and the Democrats, the new welfare bill cracks down on deadbeat parents and requires minor mothers to live at home with their parents or with another responsible adult. Second, Republicans insisted on using welfare reform as a vehicle to cut off help to legal immigrants. That was wrong.
Legal immigrants work hard, pay their taxes, and serve America.
It is wrong to single them out for punishment just because they are immigrants. We pledge to make sure that legal immigrant families with children who fall on hard times through no fault of their own can get help when they need it. And we are committed to continuing the President's efforts to make it easier for legal immigrants who are prepared to accept the responsibilities of citizenship to do so. Here the President is denying a most shameful action. History will not remember him well for ending, rather than fixing, a federal safety net that had existed for more than sixty years.