Getty Images
Add Rick Santorum to the list of Republicans who are outraged that the Obama administration is offering states more flexibility on welfare standards.
Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, accused Obama of abusing his power by placing "way too much authority" in the office of the president, citing the recent policy change by the administration that could change how states administer welfare.
"Going out and saying 'I'm going to change the law on welfare,' 'I'm going to eliminate the work requirement,' something that we fought for, President Clinton signed ... probably the single greatest accomplishment social welfare wise in the last 20 years and President Obama gets up and says, 'nope, I'm going to change the law' by speaking. This sounds like a two-bit dictator, not a president of the United States," said Santorum in an interview with ABC News's Jonathan Karl.
"You do not change the law by speaking," he added.
Santorum went on to compare Obama to Mussolini, saying, "My grandfather left Il Duce in Italy, who could get up and change the law by giving a speech ... we do not need another person who thinks that they can simply get up, give a speech, change the law and then dare the Congress."
Even by Santorum standards, this is deeply dumb. Republican governors asked for work-requirement flexibility, and the Obama administration granted their request. Isn't this the kind of move the right likes?
Santorum said Obama eliminating the work requirement, but he's confused or lying. The requirements will still exist, but states can now "experiment with ways to improve the number of people making the jump from government assistance to jobs." What's more, it's voluntary -- if states want to take advantage of the new flexibility, fine; if not, that's fine, too.
Best of all, the White House noted today that in 2005, several Republican governors specifically asked for exactly the kind of welfare flexibility Obama is now offering. On the list: Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Haley Barbour. Even Mike Huckabee was on the list, and yesterday, he threw a tantrum on Fox. Were all of them encouraging a Mussolini-style of government?
Peter Edelman, who served as assistant secretary of HHS under Clinton, characterized the right's outrage as "beyond fictional." And yet, it continues unabated.
Leave a Comment:
Dammit, are we at war with Eastasia again?
Err, I mean, we're at war with Eastasia, just as we always have been!
It's frustration. It wasn't supposed to work this way. By obstructing any laws, the GOP was going to take a hit, yes, but it would prevent the President from doing anything and you could paint him as doing nothing to help Americans.
Except Presidents do have power and a great deal of latitude in how they "faithfully execute the laws of the the United States". That's his job. And he is keeping the faith. Just not the faith in the kind of Social Darwinianism that Santorum is ironically a shill for.
Obama is using their meme of states rights and responsibility of local governments as a cudgel on the GOP. He can say- look- if you don't like what your state is doing with medicare or medical insurance, hold them accountable. If you want to vote GOP, fine- just vote for a candidate that doesn't do what you don't like. Because they have the power to change your situation.
It's Eurasia. Looks like you need some time in Room 101.
Just finished reading this book AGAIN and I swear it should be required reading for all!
It sure should. Republican orthodoxy is nothing more than IngSoc in private sector clothing with the right wing Noise Machine starring as the Ministry of (un)Truth. Republicans haven't come up with the Ministry of Love but DICK Cheney is working feverishly on it and plans to includes all kinds of fun activities he's experimented with like waterboarding, indefinite detention, private sector torture for debtors, ...
Keep cranking that Prolefeed from Fox News.
I think the right needs an afternoon nap.
With the latest over reach of his Presidential authority this time he took a dump on President Clinton's desk. He totally gutted something that President Clinton helped pass 16 years ago that did help bring a surplus during his administration. Bill has got to be happy.
Wasn't it President Obama that told the SCOTUS they didn't have the right to overturn something put into law by elected officials? Yet he, himself feel he has that power.
What could get more loser votes than tell people " Hey, if your on well-fare, Just vote for me, I'll Make it so you don't even have to look for a job".
You got to give President B Obama credit he does know how to buy votes.
Speaking of people who need an afternoon nap....
State's rights is a frequent rallying cry against a big federal government by the right. Yet giving states more flexibility over a federal law is now tyranny. Interesting, very interesting. Stupid but interesting.
The 10th Amendment only applies when Republicans are applying it.
Channeling Arte Johnson are we? I love it.
delete duplicate entry
It's not about what's happening - it's about what you can convince people is happening.
Enough people will buy this for it to be worth votes from the base.
It's the fact that he's still playing to the base three months after he clinched the nomination that is the dead giveaway he's in trouble.
And the sad part is , I don't think the base is even buying it .
Ya ya hate Obama , vote him out ya ya , we hear you
That doesn't mean we have to like you Willard
It is really pretty simple - the ultra-right has figured out that way too many people prefer to hear things that confirm their biases - whether they are true or not. This applies as much to the ultra-left as well.
So lying is no problem - if it makes you feel good, tell me more lies...
There is no "ultra left" outside of the minds of political illiterates like yourself, and the id of Rush Limbaugh.
The ultra-right didn't figure that out. Advertisers and shamans in charge of cults figured that out long ago.
This is clear evidence of the degeneration of at least a limited sector of the political right. They are not concerned with what is right. as in correct, or what is effective. If a position is supported by President Obama there is obviously something wrong with it. This has nothing to do with the proposed policy, but with a visceral hatred of the proposer. After all, who does this Hawaiian born person think that they can tell Americans what we should do?
"limited sector" of the Right?? Try: the whole freaking operation!! They are ALL crazies. the fact that 7 years ago Romney and Huckabee were the governors asking for this and are today two of the leading critics of the action demonstrates that.
No KIDDING Ray! What with McCain having to stand up today and defend Ms. Huma
To McConnell calling Reid names and interrupting while on the Senate floor. Degeneration is a mild term and unfortunately I don't think it's all that limited.
Dear God, I hope he is not the "mitt romney" (second place primary/annointed/entitled Republican nominee) of 2016.
BTW Rick, Il Duce was trying to make up for WW1 losses and joined up with Hitler pushing for national glory and expand his fascist regime. I know you are comparing Obama to Mussolini and Hitler, you are NUTS!
We are being taken over by corporate dictatorship, what do you say about that? Voting becoming a quaint idea to Republicans if you vote against corporate dictatorship, foisting their "tea" upon us, using our tax money for their business http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A2KJkPuQ_wZQKWcAEBOJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DMove%2Bto%2BAmend%2Bcorporate%2Bpersonhood%2Bflag%26fr%3Datt-portal%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D23&w=792&h=529&imgurl=www.noelsusskind.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F11%2Fcorporate_logo_flag.gif&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.noelsusskind.com%2Fblog%2Fpage%2F2&size=38.6+KB&name=The+End+of+Corporate+Personhood&p=Move+to+Amend+corporate+personhood+flag&oid=f85fcb7b3fb4e3fc83b8d1c2eb49b539&fr2=piv-web&fr=att-portal&tt=The%2BEnd%2Bof%2BCorporate%2BPersonhood&b=0&ni=21&no=23&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=117he45hr&sigb=1424kfco6&sigi=12cvk8rb8&.crumb=lfsVS/TJYmD and their religion?
Everything about the Right is "beyond fictional."
Will these guys ever be satisfied? They cry foul when there's lots of central government control, yet they also complain when the central government grants flexibility.
What's their happy medium, then?
What's their "happy medium? Them running the show. It's all about power, nothing else, and consistency is something they have no use for.
And will, as long as it doesn't cost them support from their base.
Clinton is the ONLY president in modern history that placed moratoriums on "social welfare" by putting a limit to the number of years a person can collect benefits . . . another lie/mislead by Santorum
Which is worse - Santorum's faux outrage and blatant lies or the media giving him the air time to spew forth? Did Jonathan Karl shut Santorum down? Did any major media outlet challenge this, or Bachmann's latest witch hunt? The enablers of the Republican and Teapublican campaign of lies are the "reporters" who write and the "editors" who seek and run the stories. It's great to have Steve Benen and Rachel Maddow and a few others take the politicians and pundits to task, but the systemic problem is that there is no real public penalty for their lies to begin with.
Santorum is pissed off because he did not get the nonmination. he always stated that romney would be the wrong man to represent the republican party. don't worry santorum, you will have a chance to get your ass kicked in 2016. maybe you will run against hillary.
Please somebody in the news media somewhere just say it, in print or on the air, that these guys are just LYING through their teeth. Call them out, both on the right and AND left if needed, no kind euphemisms, no skewing of stats or half truths, just bald faced lying! There IS no such thing as a half truth or partially truthful. Any premise based on a lie, partial or otherwise IS A LIE!
Unfortunately, the MSM is infested with corporate whores and moral cowards and is highly unlikely to treat Rickywicky with the contempt he deserves.
Hopefully the media will regain some sense of dignity for doing their actual jobs. When we keep telling them we want news, as in real news, not just amplifying or catapulting the propaganda, as our prior president said.
Santorum's statements along with many other are just more of radical right "Let's throw it all against the wall and see what sticks" game that Republicans are playing. These statements are intended to derail the political discourse about the real election issues. There is no point in giving coverage to faux outrage and responding with reasoned argument and facts. The statements are beyond silly and independent voters get it. A response merely dignifies the ridiculous.
Rick Sanitorium is a right wing nut..plain and simple!!
Par for the course for the modern right-winger. They've been opposing their own stuff for the duration of the Obama presidency.
I think it was Bill Maher who said Obama could tell people not to eat yellow snow, and conservatives would wax rhapsodic about the joys of yellow snow eating.
Santorum is out of his mind. Nothing new: he always was out of his mind. Why in the world he still opens his mouth?!?!?!
Why is Ricky Sweater Vest still speaking? Doesn't he know he lost his last few slivers of credibility during the primaries?
You wrote that Santorum is "confused or lying." Keep in mind that "both" is an option here.
Oh, I see, Mussolini is the new Hitler.
Sometimes you wonder what will happen 1000 years from now, how there is a very real chance that there will be no record of this lunacy. No record of people asking for something, getting it, and then condemning the person who gave them what they wanted, as well as the very act of giving. Again and again and again.
Amazing stuff! Whenever anyone disagrees with the wacko right-wing, that person is labled as un-American, un-patriotic, a traitor--or worse.
I wish I could say that this perpetual right-wing idiocy is fun. But it isn't. And sooner or later it's going to get someone hurt. Or killed.
All this lunacy began when President Clinton was in office, but really began to take hold during the George W. Bush campaign when republicans freely and frequently denigrated the war records of Viet Nam veterans such as John Kerry and Max Cleland. What a shame that the Kerry campaign allowed the radical right to succeed with their swift boating, for now, as we can clearly see, this outrageous behavior is reaching dangerous levels.
This most recent barrage of accusations that President Obama is not American began once the Romney campaign found itself struggling against the tide of public opinion that now demands he release several years of tax returns. Unfortunately, these accusations of being un-American are all that Romney has available to fight against the policies and popularity of President Obama.
Most unfortunate for the American people is the tendency of the extreme right-wing to claim that President Obama is a tyrant, a dictator--a worse dictator, according to Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Illinois, than either Hitler or Stalin. And now, we have another right-wing lunatic in Santorum who compares President Obama to Musolini. Honestly--why doesn't someone confront these lunatics and ask when this president has shut down a church or denied anyone freedom of religion or locked up thousands of citizens in concentration camps or gulags? When was the last time this president committed genocide? As I said, this is all lunacy. Unfortunately, a large segment of the US citizenry buys into it. What is wrong with these people? And what is wrong with our "leaders" who behave so irresponsibly as to spew such garbage?
We can see by recent events in Egypt just how dangerous this right-wing hate speech can be. Following charges by republican wacko Michelle Bachman that Hillary Clinton and President Obama have allowed a Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the US government--an infiltration which, according to Bachman and confirmed right-wing lunatic and conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney, has moved President Obama's administration to rig recent Egyptian elections in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood--Hillary Clinton's motorcade was mobbed by angry protestors in Egypt. This time, the protestors threw only produce and footware at Ms. Clinton and Egyptian government officials. Next time, the projectiles might prove to be lethal.
What a sad state of affairs for what is presumably the greatest nation on earth that its elected leaders and their assorted cohorts can resort to such hysterical rantings and lunatic screechings for no purpose other than to express their hatred for a man that beat them in the last election. Shame on Bachman. Shame on Santorum. Shame on Sununu. And--especially--shame on Romney for encouraging such horrific behavior.
I basically agree with you but want to point out that power is not virtue and rhetoric is not reality. To paraphrase Lord Acton, great nations are almost always bad nations.
The louder the scream, the more Mitt does interviews when he hates to do interviews, the more its clear they aren't really getting traction. Living in Florida, I've turned my TV to PBS, the commercial and cable here is BEDLAM.
Santorum... You either have to be with the GOP or Christians, the two can't be the same.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/18/542121/romney-walfare-waivers-2005/
Given that "in 2005, Romney’s signature appeared on a letter from the Republican Governor’s Association to congressional leadership. The letter states explicit support for welfare waivers:The Senate bill provides states with with the flexibility to manage their TANF programs and effectively serve their low-income populations. Increased waiver authority, allowable work activities, availability of partial work credit and the ability to coordinate state programs are all important aspects of moving recipients from welfare to work."
GOP governors who signed this request include Barbour, Pataki, Romney, Huckabee, Bush, Lingle, Guinn and Schwarzenegger .... by the way. Little Mussolinis all???
Confirms the only thing the GOP has against Obama is that he is a very good president.