Back in 1994 Jeb Bush unsuccessfully ran for governor’s office in Florida. Something he said back then has haunted him ever since. He insisted instead of having women on welfare they should “find a husband.”
CNN pointed out he said:If people are mentally and physically able to work, they should be able to do so within a two-year period. They should be able to get their life together and find a husband, find a job, find other alternatives in terms of private charity or a combination of all three.
In a 1995 book Bush also stated single parents face less public shaming if they find a husband.
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He is still on damage control for his comments years later. During a press conference in Europe on Thursday Bush tried to back step his comments. He said what he meant to say is that children with no fathers or born to single parents face “huge challenges.”
He also said:
From the perspective of children it’s a huge challenge for single moms and it hurts the prospects, it limits the ability of children to live lives with purpose and meaning.
Back in 1994 Bush’s opponent Jim Smith attacked him over his comments but he did not back down. During a news conference he said:
How you get on welfare is by not having a husband in the house — let’s be honest here. Men are not on welfare, that’s the point. That’s the point — me are not on AFDC.
AFDC is Aid to Families with Dependent Children. It’s a federal welfare program that ended in 1996 and was replaced by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Part of Bush’s 1995 book “Profiles in Character” was published in a news article on Tuesday. It said:
One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behaivor, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around to see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behaivor. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out-of-wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful.
He also said a child that did not have a father was a good indication of who would ultimately contribute to “social ills.”
For young girls, there is a correlate effect of fatherlessness that can be measured by sexual activity and the rate of out-of-wedlock childbearing.