Last updated: Friday, March 28, 1997 23:46:08 PDT
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"I'm facetious and I'm not," said Sen. Burton. "The governor's basic
philosophy is that people are poor because they want to be poor.
So in order to discourage people from being poor,
we would make it a crime."
His bills would make it a crime to live on an income below the federal
poverty level or have a child whole living in poverty.
The billis would also establish a state orphan asylum to house
the children of poor people.
"They [the poor] would become wealthy as a result of that legislation," he said.
"A guy would wake up in the morning... realize that being poor was a crime,
tinker around in the garage a little bit, start a computer
company and become a millionaire," Burton said.