Welfare - I 'd like for Kerry to say he agrees with Bill Clinton,

[Eric J in MN]

"welfare should be a second chance and not a way of life."

It might help with swing voters who are appalled at the notion of someone choosing to live off welfare.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. Kerry did support Clinton's welfare reform

it's not something I agreed with, then or now, but that is his position.

[JohnKleeb]

3. Do you know what Edwards thought of it?

I disagree with it too but I am not gonna hate Kerry's guts for it because I know we don't agree on everything, and this isn't black and white.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. Edwards wasn't in the Senate till 98, welfare reform passed in 96

[JohnKleeb]

5. Right I know that but didnt he have a position on it running for senate?

You're right, my bad. Just wondering. Its a non issue for me, I oppose welfare "reform" but Kerry's good outweighs what I disagree with him on so I gladly support him and dont gloom and doom.

[Eric J in MN]

8. OK, then John Kerry should use that by stating his position (nt)

nt

[wyldwolf]

2. No argument here

Much the same as FDR and JFK, too.

[AirAmFan]

6. Sounds like general agreement here--it's just peachy keen to 'sacrifice'

the concerns of the poor once again. If Kerry falls short and we have four more years of Dubya and Rove, it will be these kinds of attitudes discouraging potential new voters that are most to blame.

Have you seen the latest poverty and health care coverage statistics?

Do you know about the run on food banks nationwide?

Do you know that a lifetime limit on welfare use of as little as 24 months was put in place almost a hundred months ago?

[Eric J in MN]

7. I thought it was a 5 year limit. (nt)

nt

[AirAmFan]

11. 5 yrs is the Federal max, but about 20 states have gone lower

See http://www.welfareinfo.org/tanftime.htm . Even in the 60-month states, some poor people used up their eligibility for welfare three years ago, rather than six years ago in places like Florida and Tennessee. When Bushonomics makes it impossible for unskilled poor mothers to find a job, Child Welfare can move in and break up families for purely economic reasons. We're going back to 19th century notions about how to help poor children. After all, nobody gets welfare in the first place unless they have children age 0 to 18.

You're beating a dead horse--or, rather than a horse, is that a child in foster care?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. I Don't Think That's Going To Move Many Votes ...

It's old news....

[Eric J in MN]

10. I brought this up because I've heard people talking about welfare recently

nt