Clinton Would Bar ‘Extremist’ Welfare Reform

President Clinton said Saturday that Congress needs to do more work on a welfare reform bill to promote work and protect children, and he warned Congress against sending him an “extremist” measure.

In a statement originally meant to serve as his weekly radio address, Clinton praised a welfare bill passed by the Senate last week, saying it provided health care and child care and protected children.

“But we still have more work to do to promote work and protect children, though we have come a long way in this debate and we mustn’t go back,” he said.

“To those who have doubts about any welfare reform, I say, ‘We will never lift children out of poverty and dependency by preserving a failed system that keeps them there.’ ”

Clinton taped the address Friday with the intention of broadcasting it Saturday. But he scrapped it after a bomb ripped through Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. Clinton then used that broadcast time to make a statement on the bombing.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said the original broadcast on welfare was to be treated as a statement by the president on the issue.

Clinton, who vetoed two earlier welfare reform bills, said that “to those who would undo the progress of recent weeks by sending me another extremist bill like the ones I vetoed, I would say, ‘We can only transform this broken system if we do right by our children and put people to work so they can earn a paycheck, not draw a welfare check.’

“That’s the only kind of welfare reform I can sign.”

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Lawmakers are seeking a compromise between the Senate bill and a House measure passed earlier so a final version can be sent to Clinton for his signature.

Speaking after closed-door negotiations Friday, Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) said House Republicans are willing to make concessions on several issues, including a provision of their bill denying Medicaid to legal immigrants.

But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) warned that Republicans would not make key changes Clinton had requested, such as allowing states to use federal funds for vouchers to aid children whose parents lose welfare benefits.

Both bills would end a 61-year guarantee of aid to the poor, give states new authority and limit benefits to five years. They would reduce welfare spending by about $60 billion over six years, mainly by cutting food stamps and denying federal benefits to legal immigrants.

Clinton, in his address, said the current system does the most harm to people it was meant to help.

“I just don’t believe that a nation as rich in opportunity as ours is willing to leave millions of people trapped in a permanent underclass,” he said.