What should be disconcerting is that this year there are commercials that are provably devoid of truth. Mitt Romney recently released a political ad that accuses President Obama of reversing one of Clinton’s signature achievements which was to require a work component to welfare recipients. His ad uses all the code words to give the implication that the President is supporting policies that gives hard working Americans’ monies to free loaders. We all know the stereotype he is attempting to play in to.
What is ironic is that the change came about partly because Republican governors requested it as stated by President Clinton
While the Romney campaign has suggested the Obama administration made its welfare decision to foster a Democratic “culture of dependency” by making it easier for people to stay on welfare, Clinton pointed out that two Republican-controlled states had requested the waivers.
Statement by President Bill Clinton on Governor Mitt Romney’s New Television Advertisement
New York, NY — Governor Romney released an ad today alleging that the Obama administration had weakened the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That is not true.
The act emerged after years of experiments at the state level, including my work as Governor of Arkansas beginning in 1980. When I became President, I granted waivers from the old law to 44 states to implement welfare to work strategies before welfare reform passed.
After the law was enacted, every state was required to design a plan to move people into the workforce, along with more funds to help pay for training, childcare and transportation. As a result, millions of people moved from welfare to work.
The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment. The Administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach. The welfare time limits, another important feature of the 1996 act, will not be waived.
The Romney ad is especially disappointing because, as governor of Massachusetts, he requested changes in the welfare reform laws that could have eliminated time limits altogether. We need a bipartisan consensus to continue to help people move from welfare to work even during these hard times, not more misleading campaign ads.
For the duration of the healthcare debate, those opposing healthcare have lied about the contents of the bill. The biggest of course was that government was taking over our healthcare system. Every savvy American must ask, if private insurance are still paying the bill, doctors are still private, hospitals are still private, and drug companies are still private, how can this be a take over? The issue is that government “we the people” entered the fray to ensure that we move towards healthcare coverage for all Americans and that these private entities are unable to take advantage of average Americans. Many corporate concerns would rather no regulations which have allowed them to pilfer the middle class for years. I have done many blog posts (and here) on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
Do not be fooled. The wealthy are not the job creators many claim. After all they have been showered with low taxes and loose regulation. For that they have exported our jobs, invested overseas, and depressed American wages. The middle class are the job creators.
We must have policies that create jobs. If the private sector won’t (they are sitting in trillions of dollars) then the government must. There are children that need educating, airports, roads, and bridges that need building, alternative energy that must be developed, and much more.
This is an important election. It is important that you are informed. Do not sit and believe commercials. Come to this site and other sites that provide truthful and verifiable information. Vote for all candidates that demonstrably show a positive bias towards the middle class.