You will hear this quote often throughout the discussion on welfare. In fact, I have heard it many times already in this body. But I think it is so appropriate. It is such a good codification of the American spirit and what the greatness of America is all about in solving the problems of the people who are of lesser means, and that was de Tocqueville 's analysis of America.

When he came to this country over 100 years ago and looked at the private sector, the institutions, the volunteer organizations, the people who went out of their way to help their neighbors, the sense that Americans cared for each other and supported each other, there were not the Government programs--there was no AFDC Program when de Tocqueville was here, no SSI Program. There was none of that. Not to say those programs are bad, but none of that was here. It was private charity, people helping people. And de Tocqueville commented that `America is great because it is good.' And when America ceases to be good, it will no longer be great.

We need to draw on the goodness of people. We need to entrust the people to be good. That is what this bill is all about. It says that we, standing on high, are not going to dictate what is good for everyone but in fact put the resources back into the community so those people can determine what is good for themselves and their neighbors.

It is a very dramatic turnaround in policy in this country. It is one that will frighten a lot of people because a lot of people think, as the Senator from Kansas, the majority leader, said, there will be a race to the bottom; that States will race to the bottom and they will cut benefits on everybody, as if Governors and State legislators have little care about the welfare of the poor in their State but we in Washington care supremely for them.

I do not think anybody truly believes that, but that is the comment you are going to hear many times repeated here, that States simply will not provide for the poor; that we cannot trust them; that they will try to export them to another State, which will in turn try to export them to another State, and they will go to another State. I do not know what all is being suggested, but that is pretty much how it is going to play out.

I do not think that is going to happen. I think there are a lot of States--the Senator from Iowa got up and talked about how wonderful a job Iowa is doing in reforming the program. And I would say there is nothing in the bill the Senator from Oregon and the majority leader have put forward to stop Iowa from doing it. In fact, it would provide more flexibility to Iowa. I do not understand what he thinks the trouble is, but it would enable Iowa to do more that works.

I think this is the mentality. The problem is we know, or I know that this works in Iowa, and therefore I am going to tell everybody this is what they have to do. Well, just because it works in Iowa does not mean it is going to work in Alaska or Pennsylvania or anywhere else. And it has been working in Iowa for 1 year, so now we should take the Iowa experiment and tell everybody to do this?

What if Pennsylvania has a good program, and we have some good things in practice, and what if we made Iowa do that? What if we told Iowa: You cannot do what you are doing anymore because we in Washington now think something works in Pennsylvania and we should make you do that. The Senator from Iowa, I am sure, would have objection to that. And you know what? He would be right in objecting.

So I do not think that is a very serious objection to this bill. This bill is one that I would think Members who come from States that like the welfare program they have, that have popular support for it, would embrace it, would embrace this bill as an idea whose time has come. We do a lot in this bill. We reform AFDC. We require work. We have some illegitimacy programs, not as far as I would go, but we will have amendments and we will have good debates on that here on the Senate floor.

It provides the flexibility that I discussed, which I think is so important to States and communities, to deal with it. It ends the entitlement to AFDC; allows States to determine who is eligible for those benefits. I think it is very important to do that.