From the Foundry (Part of Heritage.org):Today, the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996.
The new policy guts the federal work requirements that were the
foundation of the reform law. The Obama directive bludgeons the letter
and intent of the actual reform legislation....
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)....
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 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. http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/12/obama-guts-welfare-reform/
Why is this not a surprise? Liberals have always hated the work requirement of welfare and now Obama has now earned the welfare queens and kings vote. What next, get rid of time limits to be on welfare?
Sunrise with new snow — 7:13, 7:23.
4 hours ago
Thanks Phoenix, nice write up.
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