{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgS26", "1994-12-20", 103, 2, null, null, "STARVING THE POOR", "SENATE", "SENATE", "FRONTMATTER", "S", "S", "[{\"name\": \"Paul Simon\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "140 Cong. Rec. S", "Congressional Record, Volume 140 Issue 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994)]\n[Senate]\n[Page S]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n[Congressional Record: December 20, 1994]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]\n\n                           STARVING THE POOR\n\n Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, while the editorial ``Starving the\nPoor'' appeared in the New York Times some weeks ago, what it says is\nstill pertinent.\n  We should not continue to be the only modern industrial nation with a\nhigh percentage of our people in poverty.\n  It is not an act of God, but the result of flawed political policies.\nAnd my fear is we may compound our problems.\n  I ask that the editorial be printed in the Record.\n  The editorial follows:\n\n                [From the New York Times, Nov. 24, 1994]\n\n                           Starving the Poor\n\n       The poor, particularly at election time, are routinely\n     demonized for political gain. Their exploitation in this way\n     has brought us to a cruel place in the political landscape, a\n     place where Americans--conservative, moderate and liberal--\n     are finding it frighteningly easy to blame the poor for their\n     own fate, even though that means condemning millions of\n     children to poverty, hunger and hopelessness.\n       Given the savagery of the climate, it is useful to note\n     what the Roman Catholic Church is saying in response. The\n     church, through its efforts to feed and house America's poor,\n     is intimately familiar with the problem of poverty. Of late\n     the church's most compelling voice has been that of the\n     Archbishop of New York, John Cardinal O'Connor, who last\n     month lashed out at politicians who caricature the poor for\n     political benefit. Cardinal O'Connor's observations last\n     month in his column, published in the newspaper Catholic New\n     York, merit extensive quotation:\n       ``Cuts in serving the poor are the cuts most vehemently\n     demanded and most popularly accepted because the poor have\n     been so grossly caricatured, easy to blame, easy to hate.''\n     He continued: ```The poor are poor because they want to be\n     poor,' because `they don't want to work'. . . .: such are the\n     cliches by which the poor can starve to death. . . . Will we\n     be proud of ourselves to know that we have saved money on the\n     bellies of the starving? Will we ease our consciences by\n     asking with Scrooge, `Are there no prisons? Are there no\n     workhouses?'''\n       About the cruel stereotyping of the poor, the Cardinal\n     said: ``It is increasingly rare for many of us . . . to\n     believe that people can be poor, but honest, poor, but\n     deserving of respect. Poverty is no longer blamed on anyone\n     but the poor themselves. Contempt for the poor has become a\n     virtue.''\n       These views were underscored last week at the National\n     Conference of Catholic Bishops, meeting in Washington. Its\n     president, Archbishop William H. Keeler of Baltimore, warned\n     against ``punitive welfare provisions'' that would destroy\n     fragile families and bury children deeper in poverty.\n     Archbishop Keeler said the bishops' opposition to such\n     cruelty was not partisan, but based on the church's teachings\n     about ``the dignity of life.'' He put the church squarely on\n     the side of the vulnerable.\n       By all means, reform the welfare system, end the cycle of\n     dependency, put able-bodied people to work. But politicians\n     also need to remember that the country has a moral obligation\n     to feed and protect those who cannot feed and protect\n     themselves. Even trying, we fall short of the mark. If we\n     cease to try at all, we inflict needless human suffering, and\n     become less of a society as we do.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgS26"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 28.904573060572147, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}