<div class="header">
<div class="left">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif" alt="The New York Times" align="left" border="0" vspace="0" hspace="0"></a>
</div>
<div class="right">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&opzn&page=www.nytimes.com/printer-friendly&pos=Position1&sn2=336c557e/4f3dd5d2&sn1=34aeaaa2/80e4ddbc&camp=FSL2012_ArticleTools_120x60_1787508c_nyt5&ad=BOSW_120x60_June13_NoText&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ecom%2Fbeastsofthesouthernwild" target="_blank">
<br></a>
</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"><hr align="left" size="1">
<div class="timestamp">August 8, 2012</div>
<h1>Mr. Romney Hits Bottom on Welfare</h1>
<div id="articleBody">
<p>
Mitt Romney’s campaign has hit new depths of truth-twisting with its
accusation that President Obama plans to “gut welfare reform” by ending
federal work requirements. The claim is blatantly false, but it says a
great deal about Mr. Romney’s increasingly desperate desire to define
the president as something he is not. </p>
<p>
For years, both Republican and Democratic governors have sought waivers
from the 1996 work requirements in the welfare program, sometimes to
tailor programs to their states’ needs, or to experiment with
demonstration programs. Last year, an aide to Brian Sandoval, the
Republican governor of Nevada, <a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/NevadaFlexibilityLetter8-2-11.pdf">asked to discuss flexibility</a>
in imposing those requirements. Perhaps, the state asked, those
families hardest to employ could be exempted from the work requirements
for six months while officials worked with them to stabilize their
households. </p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/100023383/Utah-Administrative-Flexibility-Letter">Utah, also led by a Republican governor</a>,
asked for relief from some federal reporting requirements, and urged
that refugee families be treated differently when seeking welfare
benefits because of cultural barriers. </p>
<p>
Reacting to these kinds of requests, the Department of Health and Human Services <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/policy/im-ofa/2012/im201203/im201203.html">issued a memo last month</a>
granting states some flexibility. If states can find better ways to get
welfare recipients into jobs, they can extend training periods or grant
certain kinds of exceptions. The department “is only interested in
approving waivers if the state can explain in a compelling fashion why
the proposed approach may be a more efficient or effective means to
promote employment entry, retention, advancement, or access to jobs,”
according to the memo. <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/100482692/Sen-Hatch-TANF-7-18">Kathleen Sebelius, the health secretary, said</a> all waivers would have to move 20 percent more people from welfare to work. </p>
<p>
This was hardly an earthshaking change. In fact, it was exactly the kind of flexibility <a href="http://democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/112/2005_Romney_Letter.pdf">sought in 2005 by 29 Republican governors</a>,
including Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. But conservative ideologues
immediately waved the memo around to prove that Mr. Obama wanted to
return to the bad old days of welfare, and inevitably Mr. Romney’s
campaign followed suit. </p>
<p>
“Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job,” says <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F4LtTlktm0&feature=player_embedded">the latest Romney ad</a>. “They just send you your welfare check, and ‘welfare to work’ goes back to being plain old welfare.” <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/news/press/2012/08/mitt-romney-we-cant-allow-our-country-become-nation-dependency">Mr. Romney himself doubled down</a> on Wednesday, saying flatly in Des Moines that Mr. Obama has “removed the requirement of work from welfare.” </p>
<p>
This could not be more wrong, but this is what happens when a flailing
campaign searches for a wedge issue to gain popularity among blue-collar
voters. Mr. Romney’s empty promises to magically turn around the
economy are losing effectiveness, so why not vilify welfare recipients
and portray the president as coddling them? </p>
<p>
That approach was favored by an earlier generation of Republican
operatives, and it helped divide the country into warring political
classes. Mr. Romney, no less cynical, seems bent on repeating the past.
</p>
<div class="articleCorrection">
</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br><br>