Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
President Obama just one year ago at his Twitter Townhall on welfare reform:
I think we should acknowledge that some welfare programs in the past were not well designed and in some cases did encourage dependency.… As somebody who worked in low-income neighborhoods, I’ve seen it where people weren’t encouraged to work, weren’t encouraged to upgrade their skills, were just getting a check, and over time their motivation started to diminish. And I think even if you’re progressive you’ve got to acknowledge that some of these things have not been well designed.
At the time, the Heritage Foundation's Rachel Sheffield commented that,
unfortunately, President Obama’s comment doesn’t acknowledge that it was not simply “some welfare programs in the past” that “did encourage dependency.” In reality, the story is no different today.
Of the more than 70 welfare programs in operation today, only one requires able-bodied recipients to work or look for work. The President’s suggestion that today “there are work obligations attached to welfare” is vastly out of touch with what is really taking place.
The one program in 70 that required able-bodied recipients to work or look for work? Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). But no longer. The Obama administration yesterday released a policy directive that Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley of Heritage explain amounts to a gutting of welfare reform.
In the past, state bureaucrats have attempted to define activities such as hula dancing, attending Weight Watchers, and bed rest as “work.” These dodges were blocked by the federal work standards. Now that the Obama Administration has abolished those standards, we can expect “work” in the TANF program to mean anything but work.
The new welfare dictate issued by the Obama Administration clearly guts the law. The Administration tramples on the actual legislation passed by Congress and seeks to impose its own policy choices—a pattern that has become all too common in this Administration.
The result is the end of welfare reform.
How is gutting one of the most popular features of the Clinton/Gingrich legacy anything other than a major blunder on Obama's part? Thankfully Romney is seizing an easy opportunity to hit Obama on what could amount to be a disastrously unpopular move —and unpopular not solely because welfare reform is one of those "duh" concepts that has broad bipartisan support, but because it is also likely illegal.
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Jun '12
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
Once again, Obama is pandering to his rabid-lefty base, at the expense of support among independents.
If he keeps it up he might win fewer states than Mondale did.
May '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
Unbelievable. Someone told him that this would be a way to keep the votes of many people already on these programs. Sadly, they were probably right. As we've seen unemployment and welfare numbers rise over the last few years, taking away any incentive to work is but another gift to them from the rest of the nation. And with this a welfare state is no longer just "likely", it is all but certain.
Jul '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
And thus the problem of why reforming entitlement programs and not ending them means they are never going away.
Jan '11
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
You know, someone should turn off the MSNBC feed into the White House.When your decision-making starts to look as if Ed Schultz is obviously your executive guru. it's time to snip a few optic cables.
What really scares me is that if Romney wins, and Obama and the Democrats lose the White House and Senate ... what kind of petulant havoc are they going to unleash between November and January?
Aug '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
There is a reason that Clinton okayed this move on one his signature pieces. It's because he has retired and needs the check without the work requirement. Moving back to Arkansas is hard enough work anyways.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
A final push for votes from the dependent class. As if that constituency were in doubt, anyway.
Edited on July 13, 2012 at 10:32pmApr '11
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
KC Mulville: You know, someone should turn off the MSNBC feed into the White House.When your decision-making starts to look as if Ed Schultz is obviously your executive guru. it's time to snip a few optic cables.
What really scares me is that if Romney wins, and Obama and the Democrats lose the White House and Senate ... what kind of petulant havoc are they going to unleash between November and January? · 44 minutes ago
No kidding.
Mar '12
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
I did not know only one of the 70 welfare programs requires recipients to work. A lefty social worker friend had told me they all did. And if "work" isn't actually work, what a dignity-destroying, dependence-inducing farce of a wealth distribution victim-mentality policy.
Had to get all those adjectives in to, you know, impact the story. ;)
My biggest question always is, "How do you reverse dependence?" You can't just all of a sudden tell all single child-bearing teens the government will provide no more food, housing vouchers, or income and they must get a job using their laughable education, or marry the often random male co-progenitor (they're not fathers) of their child(ren).
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
My biggest question always is, "How do you reverse dependence?" You can't just all of a sudden tell all single child-bearing teens the government will provide no more food, housing vouchers, or income and they must get a job using their laughable education, or marry the often random male co-progenitor (they're not fathers) of their child(ren). · 26 minutes ago
In reviewing the policy directive, I discovered that stated goals #3 and #4 of TANF has always been to
I never knew that those goals were explicitly stated within welfare reform. It makes sense to want those things, but it is unclear to me how a government program can do that. In the long term, I suppose knowing that there's no one to help you out if you have kids out of wedlock might discourage you from engaging in premarital sex. Or to have an abortion...
Jun '12
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
Diane Ellis, Ed.
In reviewing the policy directive, I discovered that stated goals #3 and #4 of TANF has always been to
I never knew that those goals were explicitly stated within welfare reform. It makes sense to want those things, but it is unclear to me how a government program can do that. In the long term, I suppose knowing that there's no one to help you out if you have kids out of wedlock might discourage you from engaging in premarital sex. Or to have an abortion... · 23 minutes ago
Actually, if Fedzilla wasn't being Uncle Sugar to these women, they might find more benefit to marrying the fathers of their children.
May '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
With things like this and Obamacare giving more of the country away in order to be "fair", what happens when we begin to repeal them next year? Sure there's a ton of support it, but there will be a lot of backlash as well. People not willing to give up their "free" healthcare or welfare. If we win in November, I bet on lots of rules like this going out. Anything they can give away on our dime, will make us that much more unpopular when it comes time to fix it. Pushes like this are the Dems betting on a comeback in 2016.
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
ConservativeWanderer
Diane Ellis, Ed.
In reviewing the policy directive, I discovered that stated goals #3 and #4 of TANF has always been to
I never knew that those goals were explicitly stated within welfare reform. It makes sense to want those things, but it is unclear to me how a government program can do that. In the long term, I suppose knowing that there's no one to help you out if you have kids out of wedlock might discourage you from engaging in premarital sex. Or to have an abortion...
Actually, if Fedzilla wasn't being Uncle Sugar to these women, they might find more benefit to marrying the fathers of their children.
In theory, sure. But marrying some rando whose full name you might not even know who bought you a bunch of drinks at a bar before having a one night stand? And who's to know which rando out of the past two dozen is the father of the kid?
Jun '12
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
Diane Ellis, Ed.
ConservativeWanderer
Actually, if Fedzilla wasn't being Uncle Sugar to these women, they might find more benefit to marrying the fathers of their children.
In theory, sure. But marrying some rando whose full name you might not even know who bought you a bunch of drinks at a bar before having a one night stand? And who's to know which rando out of the past two dozen is the father of the kid? · 4 minutes ago
Maybe they'd learn to be more careful with who they allow to get into their skirt, then.
Jan '11
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
ThePullmanns:
You can't just all of a sudden tell all single child-bearing teens the government will provide no more food, housing vouchers, or income and they must get a job using their laughable education, or marry the often random male co-progenitor (they're not fathers) of their child(ren). · 2 hours ago
Yes we can!
And we should. The federal gov needs to get out of the welfare business. Charity works best when local and personal.
May '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
This Romney supporter will be furious with him if he doesn't pursue this issue with vigor.
From experience I'll tell you there could be no more damaging issue for Obama with working class whites -- men and women -- than this one; it's perfectly damaging, really: It's easy to understand ("no more work requirement for welfare"), and it confirms this demographic's worst suspicions about Obama ("He ain't for the working man; he's for the freeloaders" etc.)
No kidding, this election will be over if Romney presses this debate.
May '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
...and btw, this presents Clinton (Bill. that is) with an opportunity for more passive-aggressive undermining of Obama, if he's so inclined. Welfare reform was afterall the single greatest accomplishment of his presidency.
Mar '11
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
So what's congress going to do to enforce this anyway? My bet: Nothing.
Seriously, what's going to happen? Barry's gotten no flack for refusing to enforce the following statues:
DOMA
ANY immigration statutes
Bankruptcy laws
Shareholder and creditor laws
need I go on?
At what point to we conservatives acknowledge the obvious? - this guy is a dictator. If only Romney had the guts to say so plainly.
Mar '11
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
No longer requiring people receiving welfare to look for work will lower the head line unemployment rate. These people will no longer count as people actively looking for work
Dec '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
ConservativeWanderer
Maybe they'd learn to be more careful with who they allow to get into their skirt, then.
Hey now! Let's not go crazy here.
Dec '10
Re: Obama Puts an End to Welfare Reform
skipsul:
At what point to we conservatives acknowledge the obvious? - this guy is a dictator. If only Romney had the guts to say so plainly. · 4 hours ago
Well said! And a question that I often ask, myself.
At what point do we finally call a spade a spade?
And what can we do about it afterwards?