Obama’s Welfare Stance Puts Him On Desert Island
(Mason Harrison) – Today we released a new web video, “The Rise and Fall of Welfare Reform.” Democrats from Carl Levin to John Kerry, and even Joe Biden supported the bipartisan reforms signed by President Clinton in 1996. When it comes to welfare reform, President Obama is out of step with the country, his party, and even his own Vice President.
Click HERE to Watch “The Rise and Fall of Welfare Reform”
I guess President Obama’s dismantling of welfare as we know it should come as no surprise considering President Obama has been a consistent opponent of the law:
State Senator Barack Obama, in 1998: “One of the good things about welfare reform, which the 1996 legislation I did not entirely agree with and probably would have voted against at the federal level.” (Barack Obama, Remarks, Chicago, IL, 10/19/98)
State Senator Barack Obama, in 1998: “You know, let me say one thing about this, because I’ve been very active in drafting the state of Illinois’ welfare proposal and thinking about how do you craft these coalitions. I was not a huge supporter of the federal plan that was signed in 1996.” (Barack Obama, Remarks, Washington, DC, 6/8/98)
State Senator Barack Obama, in 1999: “The first question which is fairly specific is about welfare reform. As most of you know I think, in 1996 the Republican Congress passed and President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that essentially ended a 60-year entitlement to welfare. I was a strong proponent of some reform of the welfare system. I would not probably have supported the federal system – the federal bill that was passed.” (Barack Obama, Remarks, Northfield, MN, 2/5/99)
In contrast, in 2006, President Clinton wrote in The New York Times, “How We Ended Welfare, Together” noting the work requirements were essential to decrease the amount of people on welfare, help Americans find work, and fight against a culture of dependency:
Thankfully, a majority of both Democrats and Republicans voted for the bill because they thought we shouldn’t be satisfied with a system that had led to intergenerational dependency. The last 10 years have shown that we did in fact end welfare as we knew it, creating a new beginning for millions of Americans. In the past decade, welfare rolls have dropped substantially, from 12.2 million in 1996 to 4.5 million today. At the same time, caseloads declined by 54 percent. Sixty percent of mothers who left welfare found work, far surpassing predictions of experts.
And in 1992, President Clinton ran a campaign ad promising to end welfare as we know it, saying “those who are able must go to work.” His tagline: “It’s time to make welfare what it should be: a second chance, not a way of life.”
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