It’s been well established by now that the Romney campaign ads accusing President Obama of gutting welfare reform by waiving its work requirement are invented out of whole cloth (cloth, it’s been noted, with an insidious racial design). Not only has Obama maintained the deeply flawed program created by President Clinton’s 1996 welfare law; but Republican governors requested the technical waivers their party now finds so deplorable.
The “Barack Obama, Welfare King” attack line is downright perverse when you consider how Obama failed to fix the “reformed” welfare system bequeathed to him by Clinton. Thanks to its block-grant structure, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program couldn’t respond to the dire need that gripped the country as the Great Recession hit.Between December 2007 and December 2009, even as the number of unemployed people roughly doubled, TANF caseloads increased just 13 percent; in twenty-two states, the number of caseloads responded very little or not at all to the downturn, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).Poverty rates have spiked to a fifty-year high, with one in five American children living in poverty, but welfare reaches fewer and fewer of them. In some states, like Georgia, it’s become next to impossible for desperate families to get any relief from the welfare system.Meanwhile, what little Obama did do to help those suffering most from the recession has been distorted beyond recognition.Notably, the president’s 2009 stimulus package, dismissed by Republicans as a big-government boondoggle, contained a provision that was directly aimed at helping people on welfare get jobs—the supposed goal of welfare reform.It’s worth revisiting the story of this initiative, crafted in the spirit of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration rather than the get-tough work requirements beloved by the GOP—because it’s the story of a government program that was succeeding before Republicans set out to destroy it.
bottom line America you have been played and in light of the none too late constant rebuking of the right wing as a whole by the media, if not recognized for the deceptive practice it is then on Nov. 7th it's to late to slap your head and say "ah crap". now is the time you don't need 2 more months to make up your mind, hello democracy and fairness for all or tyranny of the top order. recognize
Pundits on the left and right like to talk about ladders out of poverty. This really was one.
But then–House minority whip Eric Cantor didn't like it. In May 2010 he singled out the program as the "New Non-Reformed Welfare Program" designed to "promote welfare dependence" because in addition to the subsidized jobs, the program offered things like emergency housing assistance and money for school supplies
hopefully American's now as it appears is waking to the skulduggery of the right wing and realizing they are not exempt, i think that is the biggest page turner "your butt or Romney Ryan team lies"?
After receiving 280,000 text messages and online votes on the issue from his ardent Tea Party constituents, solicited through his so-called YouCut initiative, Cantor formally called for abolishing the emergency fund. Progressive groups like Jobs With Justice staged scattered protests, and Democrats tried to save it, but they couldn’t muster the votes.
The ECF was allowed to expire on September 30, 2010—thereby depriving 100,000 families of their livelihoods when the recovery was stalling and unemployment was again heading into double digits. With the total number of unemployed at around 15 million, the ECF fell far short of solving a national emergency. But in a different world, the success of this program would have been viewed as something to build on, not tear down.
once gain who's to blame for obstruction to the benefits that would have propelled us out of this abyss,and after promising you jobs in 2010, think that was right wing political chatter, no it wasn't if was a bald faced lie they never intended to keep.
After receiving 280,000 text messages and online votes on the issue from his ardent Tea Party constituents, solicited through his so-called YouCut initiative, Cantor formally called for abolishing the emergency fund. Progressive groups like Jobs With Justice staged scattered protests, and Democrats tried to save it, but they couldn’t muster the votes.
The ECF was allowed to expire on September 30, 2010—thereby depriving 100,000 families of their livelihoods when the recovery was stalling and unemployment was again heading into double digits. With the total number of unemployed at around 15 million, the ECF fell far short of solving a national emergency. But in a different world, the success of this program would have been viewed as something to build on, not tear down.
once gain who's to blame for obstruction to the benefits that would have propelled us out of this abyss,and after promising you jobs in 2010, think that was right wing political chatter, no it wasn't if was a bald faced lie they never intended to keep.
