Why wait for the traditional Friday news dump when a Thursday dominated by the Obama campaign’s smears will do? If you missed this news drowned out by Team Obama’s cries of “Romney is a felon” yesterday, you’re not alone.
The imperial Presidency has overturned Congress and the law again. The Obama regime rewrote Bill Clinton's welfare reform law of 1996.
— Roland O'Brien (@Roland693) July 13, 2012
The Obama administration issued a policy directive that obliterates one of the most successful aspects of Clinton-era welfare reform: the work requirement. Welcome to dependency-palooza.
While Obama fixates on Bain, Romney checks out new Obama move allowing HHS to kill work requirement at heart of welfare reform…
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 13, 2012
Most media still haven't reported Obama's slash-and-burn of welfare reform yesterday. http://t.co/rySRwDXl
— Amy Payne (@amympayne) July 13, 2012
“Chirp, chirp, chirp,” sang the lapdog media.
In a quiet move Thursday — barely noted beyond the conservative press — the Obama administration “released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996,” according to Robert Rector, a welfare policy expert at the Heritage Foundation.
…
The administration’s action means “the end of welfare reform as we know it,” in Rector’s words.
Obama's suspension of workfare requirements is almost certainly illegal, a sign of the jobs failure, and a reminder how liberal obama is
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) July 13, 2012
https://twitter.com/DougHeye/status/223793092988375040
King Obama strikes again. Unilaterally kills historic welfare work requirements Pres Clinton & Republican Congress passed in 90s. #tcot
— Dan Ziegler (@D_Ziegler) July 13, 2012
Did you hear? —-> Obama HHS ignores Congress, and guts Clinton-era welfare reform, waiving work requirements! http://t.co/syW7Zxb6
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) July 13, 2012
More from The Heritage Foundation on the administration’s latest flouting of the law:
Today the Obama Administration issued a new directive stating that the traditional TANF work requirements can be waived or overridden by a legal device called the section 1115 waiver authority under the Social Security law (42 U.S.C. 1315).
Section 1115 states that “the Secretary may waive compliance with any of the requirements” of specified parts of various laws. But this is not an open-ended authority: Any provision of law that can be waived under section 1115 must be listed in section 1115 itself. The work provisions of the TANF program are contained in section 407 (entitled, appropriately, “mandatory work requirements”). Critically, this section, as well as most other TANF requirements, are deliberately not listed in section 1115; they are not waiveable.
Read the full “information memorandum” issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. Much like Obama’s DREAM decree that granted deportation waivers to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, this welfare gutting bypasses the legislature in a sickening display of executive overreach.
Obama's unilateral welfare changes same story as his No Child Left behind rewrite and DREAM amnesty
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) July 13, 2012
So why now?
Obama admin guts bipartisan welfare reform, signature achievement of Clinton admin http://t.co/DT0xD2wR Why? No jobs in Obama economy
— John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) July 13, 2012
Speaker Boehner released this statement.
“By gutting the work requirements in President Clinton’s signature welfare reform law, President Obama is admitting his economic policies have failed.
“While President Clinton worked with Congress in a bipartisan way on welfare reform and economic opportunity, President Obama has routinely ignored Republican proposals, rejected House-passed jobs bills, and imposed an agenda that’s helped keep the unemployment rate above eight percent for 41 months. Instead of working with Republicans to boost job creation, the president is simply disregarding the requirement that welfare recipients find work.
“Welfare reform was an historic, bipartisan success – this move by the Obama administration is a partisan disgrace.”
So, Bill Clinton, what say you?
President clinton and the republican congress created a bipartisan work oriented reform of welfare. Obama has single handedly destroyed it
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) July 13, 2012
Bill Clinton already said ALL tax rates should be extended. Will he now ask Pres Obama to reinstate welfare law he signed?
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) July 13, 2012
Bill Clinton, call your office. The President is gutting your signature reform http://t.co/o5QPijHo
— Brendan Buck (@BrendanBuck) July 13, 2012
