Remarks at the Pennsylvania State University Graduate School Commencement in State College, Pennsylvania

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 20, 1996

And so what I ask you today is to think about that. What is the role of the individual citizen in making the America of our dreams in the 21st century? What is the role of the individual citizen in making sure that we will move into this global society, with everyone having the chance to live up to his or her dreams? It is clear to me that Government alone cannot solve this problem.

If you look at any society's most fundamental requirements, strong families and safe streets, and you ask yourselves, what are all the causes for the stresses on those things in our country, you may come up with a whole laundry list of things that Government can do about them. I know I have. But in your heart of hearts you know that many, many of the things from which we suffer are caused by the lack of personal responsibility on the part of millions of American citizens, the teen mother who leaves school for a life on welfare, a father who walks away from or abuses a family, a criminal who preys upon the rest of us, the neighbors who turn their backs upon the children in need.

I say to you we cannot tolerate this anymore if you really want your vision of the 21st century to become real. We have to be willing to give people a chance to escape lives that are destructive for them and costly for the rest of us. That is our responsibility. But we must also insist that people help themselves and assume responsibility for making their own lives and the life of this great Nation better.

If you just take the welfare system, for example, you can see the point I'm trying to make. I took office believing that a lot of people on welfare were dying to get off it and were trapped in it. I still believe that. It's a system that is too weighted toward a lifetime of dependency instead of demanding responsibility, too willing to let fathers bring children into the world, turn their backs and walk away and load all the burden onto the young mothers who are left behind, too willing to give the young mothers a check to move out on their own if they have a child instead of staying at home, staying in school, and strengthening the family.

For 15 years, going back to my service as Governor, I have sat in welfare offices, talked to people on welfare, asked them what it would take to turn their lives around, asked them what had happened. I have worked to reform and change welfare from a system that encourages dependency to one that encourages independence, from one that does not encourage work to one that insists upon work but also supports responsible parenting.

If you look at all these people here with their advanced degrees, why are we so proud of them? Because we believe they will be able to succeed not only in the world of work but they will be good role models for the American society. Their children will be able to succeed. They will be able to look at their children and their children will be able to look at them, and they will be able to do great things together. That is what we should want for people on welfare, the simple ability to succeed at work and to succeed at home, to be able to contribute their portion of the American dream.