President Obama Ends Welfare Reform

President Barack Obama has effectively ended the Welfare Reform which began in 1996. Most Americans don't even know he's done it, because the liberal national news media doesn't want to report it. After all, for most in the liberal media the true mission is to support Obama all the time and never print anything derogatory about him. In fact, he has greatly expanded Welfare, according to www.heritage.org --adding $800 billion in new spending over the next decade.

In effect, our new President has shown that he is for big government all the time, even though he says he isn't. He wants to keep millions of poor Americans dependent on the federal government. That way, of course, they will continue to vote for him, if he runs for re-election. They will vote for other Democrats too. How did he do it, with so few people even noticing? This little known legislative trick was accomplished through the so-called stimulus package, passed by Congress, which the President signed, and which is supposed to help create jobs. It sounds to me like he actually wants people to depend on the government, rather than become productive members of society. Ending Welfare Reform could have no legitimate purpose and must certainly be just to benefit Democratic politicians.

The Welfare Reform of 1996 passed by both Republicans and Democrats and signed by President Bill Clinton replaced the old Aid to Families of Dependent Children (AFDC). The new program was the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).

Under the old AFDC program states were given more welfare money if their welfare roles increased, if more people depended on the government for a livelihood, rather than finding jobs. Before Welfare Reform, one child out of every seven received AFDC benefits. Under TANF, each state instead received a flat rate to help people. For the first time, states were supposed to reduce welfare benefits, supposed to help people prepare for jobs.

The new spending approved by Congress and signed by President Obama will amount to $22,500 for every person in America. Each family that pays income tax will have to chip in $10,000.

Under Welfare Reform, more people got jobs, became productive members of society. No doubt many people even felt like more productive members of society. That won't happen any more, thanks to President Obama.

Under the new system, states will once again be paid more if their Welfare roles increase. States will actually be paid even more than under the system that was in effect prior to 1996. The government has added $4 billion per year to help states increase their welfare roles.

Some may actually believe the American economy is so bad that such steps are necessary and will probably only be temporary anyway. I would ask if government spending is ever temporary. Such an increase in spending is unnecessary, because TANF money allows for funding that can go to states with an increase in unemployment. The money in the contingency fund that allows for $2 billion in funding to go to states with increased unemployment could have been increased, if the politicians' goal was pure and was to help the less fortunate. Because it was handled the way it was, however, we can see that liberal Democrats, including our new President, merely, want to keep more people dependent on the government, merely want more votes.

The critics of President Bush were never hesitant to criticize things about him they did not like. Let us never hesitate to criticize the mistakes Obama makes-whether it is abolishing welfare reform, supporting abortion, or whatever.