PLATFORM : Robbed of Dignity

Welfare should be a transitional program that gives people time to become self-sufficient. However, welfare has become a bankrupt, enslaving system that keeps people in poverty. I represent the poorest community in New Jersey and I know that the current system doesn’t encourage people to be self-sufficient.

We can help people find a way out of the welfare system by making them more responsible for their lives. We should make it clear that those who refuse to work--to be responsible--will lose benefits.

Education is a key to becoming independent. Our program provides education because it doesn’t make sense to provide job training if a person doesn’t have basic skills.

People are empowered when they are required to take responsibility for their actions. When a middle-class family brings a child into the world, that family has to provide support. We need to bring those values to those on welfare by making them--not the welfare system--financially responsible when they decide to have additional children.

Strengthening the family structure is another key. This country’s assistance programs discourage marriage and destroy the traditional family by providing single mothers and (their) children more benefits than welfare families with a father present--encouraging the male to leave the household for the sake of the children.

Most people don’t want to be a part of the welfare system. The current system is tantamount to slavery. We can help them find a way out by allowing them the dignity to be more responsible for their lives.