We should be keeping in mind the real cost of having a permanent underclass as opposed to having more people as productive members of the workforce, etc.
It just strikes me, sitting here—I'm not a member of this committee—that we live in the richest and most powerful civilization in the history of the world and we can't provide for the basic needs of our families to flourish. There's something wrong with the redistribution of wealth system that this committee is supposed to be commenting on.