Report: Number of Able-Bodied Adults on Food Stamps Doubled After Obama Suspended Work Requirements
Turns out, accusations that the President has gutted the welfare reform enacted by Bill Clinton and a Republican congress in 1996, is true.
After suspending a work requirement for the eligibility of food stamps, those who collected their government handouts sky-rocketed.
Via the Washington Examiner:
Obama administration officials have insisted that their decision to grant states waivers to redefine work requirements for welfare recipients would not “gut” the landmark 1996 welfare reform law. But a new report from the Congressional Research Service obtained by the Washington Examiner suggests that the administration’s suspension of a separate welfare work requirement has already helped explode the number of able-bodied Americans on food stamps.
In addition to the broader work requirement that has become a contentious issue in the presidential race, the 1996 welfare reform law included a separate rule encouraging able-bodied adults without dependents to work by limiting the amount of time they could receive food stamps. President Obama suspended that rule when he signed his economic stimulus legislation into law, and the number of these adults on food stamps doubled, from 1.9 million in 2008 to 3.9 million in 2010, according to the CRS report, issued in the form of a memo to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.
“This report once again confirms that President Obama has severely gutted the welfare work requirements that Americans have overwhelmingly supported since President Clinton signed them into law,” Cantor said in an emailed statement. “It’s time to reinstate these common-sense measures, and focus on creating job growth for those in need.”
In other words, stay home and collect your government welfare check, as opposed to going to work and collecting your paycheck. This is where the notion that Obama supporters sign the back of checks, while Romney supporters sign the front of checks comes from.
It is also why people refer to Obama as the food stamp President. This is the 47% of people that Obama panders to, and tries to purchase their votes, and it is the 47% that Romney can’t be concerned about when campaigning.
Romney is right.
Individuals who find it more rewarding to collect their welfare checks as opposed to their work checks will never be motivated enough to follow Romney’s vision to get America back on the right economic path.
New York GOP Greets President Obama … With a Cold Dose of Reality
Today New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox released the following statement regarding President Obama’s latest celebrity fueled fundraiser:
“Once again, we’re happy to welcome President Obama back to New York, where unemployment in both New York City (9.6%) and New York State (8.9%) remains above the national average, for yet another swank, star-studded fundraiser for his reelection campaign.
“While President Obama spends his day shooting hoops with Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Carmelo Anthony, his administration continues to throw bricks when it comes to job creation and economic growth.
“Today also marks the 16th anniversary of President Clinton signing bipartisan “welfare to work” requirements into law, which Obama unilaterally dismantled last month. Welfare reform demonstrated that government policies can best help those in need by promoting work and personal responsibility over government dependence.
“In one fell swoop, Obama undermined one of the most celebrated bipartisan achievements of the 1990s in an election year handout to his liberal base.
“It’s an insult to Americans on welfare who are looking for an opportunity to build better lives for themselves and a kick in the gut to the millions of hard-working middle-class taxpayers struggling in today’s economy – working more for less but always preferring self-sufficiency to a government handout.
“Mitt Romney has promised to rescind Obama’s executive action and make clear that work requirements are not optional.
“Governor Romney’s plan for a stronger middle class will rely on the hard work and ingenuity of the American people – not more directives and dollars from Washington.”
New Ad Slams Obama For Gutting Welfare Reform
Last month, the Obama administration gutted Clinton-era welfare reforms by offering waivers to states from work requirements in the welfare reform bill. The move eliminated conditions that able-bodied individuals receiving welfare continue to work or actively seek employment.
The Romney campaign has responded with a devastating new video…
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed bipartisan legislation that reformed welfare.
Democrats from Carl Levin to John Kerry, and even Joe Biden supported the bipartisan reforms. President Obama, on the other hand, has been a consistent opponent of the law and recently dismantled the historic bill. When it comes to welfare reform, President Obama is out of step with the country, his party, and even his own Vice President.
Obama Kills Clinton-Era Welfare Reform, Violates Law at Same Time
This was originally posted by the fabulously talented Maggie Thurber over at Thurber’s Thoughts. Please go visit her site…
If you rely only upon the main stream media, you’ll probably miss the latest move by President Barack Obama’s administration that effectively guts the work participation requirement for the TANF welfare program.
TANF, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, was part of the Clinton-era welfare reform in 1996 that required individuals to work or ‘prepare’ for work (training, education) in order to receive benefits. It is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.
As the Morning Bell points out, that requirement was successful, but now the law is being gutted – and you’re paying for it (emphasis added).
This reform was very successful. TANF became the only welfare program (out of more than 70) that promoted greater self-reliance. It moved 2.8 million families off the welfare rolls and into jobs so that they were providing for themselves. Child poverty fell, and single-parent employment rose. Recipients were required to perform at least 20–30 hours per week of work or job preparation activities in exchange for the cash benefit.
Now, Obama’s HHS is claiming that it can waive those work requirements that are at the heart of the law, and without Congress’s consent.
When it established TANF, Congress deliberately exempted or shielded nearly all of the TANF program from waiver authority. They explicitly did not want the law to be rewritten at the whim of HHS bureaucrats. In a December 2001, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service clarified that there was no authority to override work and other major requirements: “Effectively, there are no TANF waivers,” it reported.
But that did not stop the Obama Administration, which has been increasing welfare spending at an alarming rate already. President Obama has added millions to the welfare rolls, and his Administration has come under fire lately for its efforts to expand and add more Americans to the food stamp program.
This is a chronic problem: Over the past two decades, welfare spending has grown more rapidly than Social Security and Medicare, education, and defense. The TANF reform was one small step in the direction of reducing Americans’ dependence on government programs and getting them back on their feet. Cutting its work component is likely to unnecessarily swell the ranks of welfare recipients and with no way to pay for it.
Scope of Authority
Section 1115 authorizes waivers concerning section 402. Accordingly, other provisions of the TANF statute are not waivable. For example, the purposes of TANF are not waivable, because they are contained in section 401. The prohibitions on assistance are not waivable, because they are contained in section 408.
While the TANF work participation requirements are contained in section 407, section 402(a)(1)(A)(iii) requires that the state plan “[e]nsure that parents and caretakers receiving assistance under the program engage in work activities in accordance with section 407.” Thus, HHS has authority to waive compliance with this 402 requirement and authorize a state to test approaches and methods other than those set forth in section 407, including definitions of work activities and engagement, specified limitations, verification procedures, and the calculation of participation rates. As described below, however, HHS will only consider approving waivers relating to the work participation requirements that make changes intended to lead to more effective means of meeting the work goals of TANF.
Here’s the logic:
* the work requirement is contained in a non-waivable section of law (407)
* a different section (402), which requires that a state plan adhere to the non-waivable section, is waivable
* therefore, HHS is waiving section 402, which requires the state plan to follow section 407
* end result: section 407 is effectively waived.
But there’s a bit of a problem with that logic, as this Foundry.org article explains:
Section 402 describes state plans—reports that state governments must file to HHS describing the actions they will undertake to comply with the many requirements established in the other sections of the TANF law. The authority to waive section 402 provides the option to waive state reporting requirements only, not to overturn the core requirements of the TANF program contained in the other sections of the TANF law.
The new Obama dictate asserts that because the work requirements, established in section 407, are mentioned as an item that state governments must report about in section 402, all the work requirements can be waived. This removes the core of the TANF program; TANF becomes a blank slate that HHS bureaucrats and liberal state bureaucrats can rewrite at will. … In a December 2001 document, “Welfare Reform Waivers and TANF,” the non-partisan Congressional Research Service clarified that the limited authority to waive state reporting requirement in section 402 does not grant authority to override work and other major requirements in the other sections of the TANF law (sections that were deliberately not listed under the section 1115 waiver authority):
Technically, there is waiver authority for TANF state plan requirement; however, [the] major TANF requirements are not in state plans. Effectively, there are no TANF waivers.
And who do you think is going to cover the cost of the expected increase in welfare rolls when people learn they won’t be required to work in order to be eligible?
The Obama administration has just ended welfare reform – and you’re going to pay for it.
Mental Recession 