Even More Bad News on Obama HHS Gutting Welfare Reform

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The Foundry:

 

 

Even More Bad News on Obama HHS Gutting Welfare Reform

 

 

Robert Rector

July 26, 2012 at 10:00 am

 

The Obama Administration has created a firestorm by claiming the authority to waive the work requirements of the popular 1996 welfare reform law. But the damage doesn’t stop there.

The same July 12 guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) states that HHS will not approve policy initiatives that are “likely to reduce access to assistance.” Translation: Obama’s HHS will oppose any policy that actually reduces welfare caseloads and dependence.

What’s more, stung by criticism for gutting the successful core of welfare reform, HHS now claims that states receiving a waiver must “commit that their proposals will move at least 20 percent more people from welfare to work compared to the state’s prior performance.” On the surface, this sounds impressive, but a state can meet this goal merely by raising its monthly employment exits from, say, 5 percent to 6 percent of caseload. That kind of change will occur automatically as the economy improves, even without bureaucratic action.

The new HHS “standard” is merely a ploy that will read more

 

 

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/26/even-more-bad-news-on-obama-hhs-gutting-welfare-reform/

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Obama’s Welfare Free Lunch: 1996

By Stanley Kurtz

August 8, 2012 9:40 A.M.

 

In criticizing President Obama’s gutting of the work requirements so central to welfare reform, the Romney campaign evoked political history. Lanhee Chen, Romney’s policy director reminded us yesterday that in 1996: “Barack Obama took to the floor of the Illinois State Senate to announce his opposition [to work-based welfare reform].” True, but that’s only the beginning. Let’s have a look at what else Obama was doing that year.

In 1996, the year President Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform bill, Obama became a member of a leftist third party called the New Party read more

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/313370/obamas-welfare-free-lunch-1996-stanley-kurtz