Democrats reacted harshly to the decision of Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee to add the word “welfare” to the name of a subcommittee.
Democrats took umbrage with Chairman Jason Smith’s decision to rename the Worker and Family Support subcommittee to the subcommittee on Work and Welfare. Ranking member Richard Neal (D-MA) condemned the change during his opening remarks at the committee organizational meeting and asked the GOP to reconsider.
“The term you’ve chosen is pejorative and has a long history of being used to attack people who are struggling and need a hand,” said Neal.
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Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) argued that the word welfare was being used pejoratively by Republicans on the committee. She noted that President Ronald Reagan popularized the phrase “welfare queen.” Reagan controversially used the phrase to describe a hypothetical woman with several fake names and Social Security numbers who is gaming the welfare system.
“You know doggone well that it has not changed, to be the dogwhistle that it was there. It’s a foghorn at this point,” Moore told the committee. “And you know, mister chairman, that the intent of this change, however many times it is changed, the intent is to cast aspersions on the people who are served by it, particularly women who have children.”
Republicans on the committee argued that the use of the word welfare isn’t demeaning to those who need public assistance but rather emphasized their desire to help move people beyond government programs through work and better opportunities.
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) invoked his own personal experience. He said that growing up, welfare “was critical to us eating” but emphasized the importance of getting people out of those situations. He praised the welfare reform legislation passed under a GOP majority in Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton.
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“I would hope that our membership would give us a chance, working together, to do that kind of work again. To not be worried about politically correct words for the sake of working together to help more [people] get off of welfare and get back to work,” Hern said.
Smith recently told the Washington Examiner that a theme while he is chairman will be hearing from working-class people in the U.S. He intends to hold field hearings across the country to understand better the issues facing blue-collar workers.
