'Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act', a trailblazing welfare reform bill (passed in 1996 by the first GOP Congress
in 40 years) that was considered a major cornerstone of
House Speaker Gingrich's legendary Contract with America.
What it did -among other things- was to add a work requirement which resulted in a significant jump in employment among many of those who -prior to reform- seemed permanently glued to the government teat (and their sofa). The long-term effect was even more dramatic: both welfare and poverty rates declined significantly during the late 90s, this doing much to bring our nation something that now seems but a quaint memory...
a balanced federal budget.
The chart below was actually produced by a liberal group, but the numbers can't be spun any other way: there has been a terrific positive effect brought by that reform, reducing welfare costs and nudging millions of people back-into-the-groove
(or productive for the very fist time in their whole sorry lives):
Obama has already said openly that he is 'not a fan' of the 1996 law, which was signed by Bill Clinton after he had vetoed two earlier and stronger bills. But even with the watered-down compromise legislation that Bubba was willing to sign, the result was a ginormous reduction the number of people collecting welfare... what kind of kook would not be 'a fan' of that?
Even libs at The New Republic eventually came-round to admitting they were wrong: 'A broad consensus now holds that welfare reform was certainly not a disaster-and that it may, in fact, have worked much as its designers had hoped'
Regardless, the Bolshevik Boy Wonder is out to gut welfare reform, and he's not going to let constitutional niceties get in the way- rather, expect further damage via executive order if shredding the work requirement doesn't keep the serfs tethered tightly-enough to the wagon.
Typically, 'fact-checking' MSM shills are emitting a thick propaganda smoke-screen while implying those who realize what this ever-scheming snake Obama's doing are completely full of it- yet anybody with two eyes can see what he's attempting to accomplish here: in his mind, entitlement addicts + illegal immigrants + massively expanded federal workforce = 50.1% of the vote/Obammunism ad infinitum.
Barack Obama is the first American president that did all in his power to put more people on the nation's welfare rolls while creating massive new entitlement programs, yet diddly-squat to encourage job creation, at least in the private sector- does that sound like a guy that wants us to be free and successful, or indentured to a bunch of self-serving bureaucratic putzes
like himself?
The end-game in creating our nation's social safety net was always to get people on their feet, as independent, capable contributors to society and the economy... guess that doesn't dovetail well with Dear Leader's actual agenda- while Obama seems to view a vibrant, job-producing economy as somehow threatening to whatever he's actually up-to.
Barack Obama's ill-advised and anti-democratic dismantling of such wildly-successful welfare reform is but yet another reason why this baleful enemy-within must be politically obliterated in November, him along with the whole 'progressive' movement... no ifs, ands, or butts about it.
Obama 1996 newt welfare reform