After a brief reprieve, the racially-charged Romney/Ryan welfare lie made a furious comeback last week, and will probably remain an important part of the Republican campaign strategy through Election Day.
But the story is not without some new twists. On Capitol Hill, for example, House Republicans are pushing new legislation intended to block the Obama administration's waivers. It's obviously a cheap election-year stunt, but the underlying message is pretty remarkable, even for the congressional GOP -- they want to prevent governors from having flexibility in trying welfare-to-work programs that don't weaken work requirements.
It's not just counter to conservative principles, it's childish -- to spite the president, House Republicans want to take experimentation power away from Republican governors.
And it gets worse. MSNBC's Zach Roth reports today on the even deeper cynicism.
Earlier this summer, House Republicans themselves voted for a bill that really could allow states to end welfare's work requirement, according to an authoritative and nonpartisan congressional analysis.
In June, On June 7, all 23 Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee -- including prominent members like Buck McKeon, Duncan Hunter, and Joe "You Lie!" Wilson -- voted for a measure to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). According to a memo produced by the Congressional Research Service -- a nonpartisan research arm of Congress -- and posted online (pdf) by committee Democrats, the bill would allow states to consolidate money for welfare and other work-related programs into a single "Workforce Investment Fund."
That would then mean that the welfare funds, known as TANF funds, were no longer subject to the requirements under which they'd previously existed.
Yep, House Republicans, earlier this summer and before Team Romney crafted its notorious lie, voted to ease the work requirement in welfare law. GOP policymakers actually did what Romney falsely accused Obama of doing. Amazing.
In the meantime, if you read the fine print on the Romney/Ryan attack ads that repeat the welfare lie, you'll notice they rely on one person, the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector, for support. American Bridge 21st Century takes a closer look at Rector's scholarship in an interesting report today.
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If there's a requirement that you have to do actual work to get government money, why are we still paying Congress?
It's like they're playing an online game where the people aren't real and nothing they do affects the real world.
COTD!
CongressSims? World of Congress? Wait, I've got it: Congress Wars: The New Republic! And Speaker Boner is setting himself up as the new emperor. Now is this game a subscription based service or free to play? Obviously there aren't any real qualifications to play (like something that resembles an intellect) so I'm assuming anyone can start. Do I need a P.A.C. or can I just depose a current member? This sounds like fun (aside from the fact this is REAL LIFE and the s&!% they do actually affects people.
Ooh, a new game idea, like USAville where you get to play a member of the 1% who can buy elections across the country. They could show people just how easy the top 1% have it. :D
Max, it's obviously subscription based. But subscriptions are expensive. Costing as much as a few hundred million over two years depending on whether you want to grind your way up by lobbying or pay for content like relaxed regulations, preferential tax laws, etc. Well, technically, it's free to play, but you don't stand a chance if you don't pay for the top subscription.
It sounds like they are just looking for a way to get their hands on the Workforce Investment Fund. Just like the way they take away programs and help that is intended to boost the economy and give it instead to themselves or their rich friends.They would take the candy right out of a laughing babies' mouth.
Did anyone ever notice in college that all the right wing professors were morons? I well remember a Poli Sci professor who daily celebrated his ignorance about the Vietnam War and I would daily raise my hand and rip him a new one with my response. What drove him nuts was I was a Vietnam veteran, and so he couldn't just dismiss me since he was also into "publicly honoring" those who served. I talked to fellow students in later years and they used to say they made it to class just to see how foolish I would make him look that day. Robert Rector reminds me of that guy, also Victor Davis Hanson, who gives a new and original definition of the word "puerile" with everything he publishes.
It's the same old GOTP theme, going back to W's stem cell restrictions and "abstinence only" requirements. Ideological zealots delude themselves that their beliefs are absolute and incontrovertible, which is why they medicate themselves with their delusions with such ruthlessness and so little regard for others. They believe that their ideology supersedes facts, evidence, and logic, so any "research" or "scholarship" they purport to engage in is biased and produces a prearranged outcome.
Mitt's only ideology is that he wants and needs to be president. Otherwise, he's crafty and opportunistic, so he knows that the Rector "research" is utterly bogus. He claims to rely on it because, as a venture capitalist, his risk assessment tells him he can get away with it. He is getting away with it, at least with his base.
Romney's new strategy is a welcome respite from the attacks about "You Didn't Build That", the 716 billion dollar welfare lie, and the lie about repealing Welfare work requirements. For some reason, Romney and his advisors seem to think that Foreign Policy is now his strong suit (roll eyes).
If that is so, no greater error in judgement has been made since Hitler and Goehring decided to bomb London in 1940 instead of the RAF airfields.
Oh his foreign policy IS his strong suit. His accounts in the Cayman are very strong and untaxable ... his foreign policy of sending jobs over seas is awesome... and now his firing up of the rightwingnuts to start yet a third war against the entirety of the Middle East filled with "fanatics and savages" is definitely something to be proud of. *sorry if the sarcasm dripped on your shoes, leave me the cleaning bill* ..
What was that Clinton said about it takes brass for someone to............
Actually, not amazing at all. Not even surprising. I've come to realize that if you ever want to know what the Rape-Public-CONs are really up to, just look at what they're accusing the Democrats of doing... projection is part of their standard stock-in-trade.
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
What I wonder is "how so they sleep"? The amount of energy spent on lies is truly daunting. If I ran my own life that way, I'd be dead from it already!
For the Romney campaign to cite the Heritage Foundation as a source of fact is like letting Jerry Jones be the referee at a Cowboys game.
Look into HR 4737 from 2002. It's even stronger, and Ryan voted for it.
"It's not just counter to conservative principles, it's childish -- to spite the president,..."
Is this really where WE are as a nation, children running the asylum and having temper tantrums?! Exactly what is it that GOTP voters are NOT seeing? Is this "leadership", really? WE actually do have issues that need to be addressed with some meaningful legislation, we actually have an adult in President Obama, and where oh where is that librul corporate owned lame-stream media asking where are the adults, and why are the children not being spanked?
C'mon people WE deserve better than this nonsense!
Why would anyone be surprised at anything Republicans do, it isn't like integrity is a Republican value.
re: "I worship Ayn Rand slavishly and am blindly devoted to her views." Republicans in our Government should just say that and get it over with. They just don't it and never will: the GOP like Ms Rand extolls the “freedoms” of being a psychopath.
I am really starting to lose faith in this government. It's like I'm past rage and caving in to a resigned exhaustion.
No, no, no. Don't boo. Vote!
What's surprising that the GOP voted for it? It was the Republican governors who were requesting the waivers, right? In fact, I thought Mitt requested it when he was governor.
Rector, damn near killed her.
Kind of hacky, but funny... :D
I read yesterday that after doing absolutely nothing for a whole year, Congress will be adjourning AGAIN before the end of September and probably won't be back until after the elections in November this is after taking off the whole summer!!!! This is totally unacceptable! I don't know about any of the rest of you but if I took that much time off and did that poor of a job, at my job, I would be FIRED! If congress won't do the job WE hired them to do and that WE pay for them to do, we should with hold their pay checks and then FIRE THEM!!!
Congress takes a lot of days off. Always. With a little searching, you can find the Congressional and Senate calendars rather easily. I understand the theory behind the days off, but given this Congress, especially, doing whatever it wants, constituents be damned, it does irritate me that they are in recess for so long, so often.
The Democrats in the Senate should pick this up and PASS it. That would be the ultimate FU.
taking money and food from single moms when fat cats still get a pension and healthcare for life. I wonder if tha passes onto the spouse if they die? I hope welfare ends for illegal moms of legal children, that's where the buck needs to stop. They will populate this country so fast just to get welfare for each child.
Ya, and drive off in their Escalades:(
This is so amazing that the number 46 million more people are now receiving gov't assistance that did in 2008. It so amazing that people can stay on unemployment for years without recourse. If people need a job and they want to stay in states run by Democrats they wont find a job. If they truly want a job they can find one quite easily. A quick search in careerbuilder.com shows there are over 35K jobs posted in the past 24hrs.; 74K in the past 3 days, and over 100K in the past 7 days. These are new jobs, not those already sitting there waiting for people to fill. When in doubt just take free money, cause it is free RIGHT? Wait its Obama's stash (according to Detroit residents . . .HAHAH)
People can't stay on unemployment for years, you earn so many weeks by how much you have worked, and the amount your receive by how much pay you received. you can work two yrs and then get layed off again and draw some unemployment again. The unemployment was extended because of the wall street collapse and so many companies going out of business. Jobs posted are sometimes high tech and not very many are trained to do them. People are out of work all over the US and Jobs posted are also all over the US, not always compatable.
Question for "the truth must come out"... are you a real american... because even myself a non-USA citizen knows that benefits are linked to work service - hence the entitlement has been EARNED. My heart bleeds for your education system because you DID get left behind.
Novel of the TEA-Libertarian-GOP-Republican-Evangelical sect to try everything they can to limit Obama from getting things done. Special procedures to force a majority rule on the welfare-to-work waiver the president had implemented which Romney's political ads used against him in a desperate ploy to incite gullible voters. This waiver is for bureaucratic barriers and not for work requirements. Listen closely to president Clinton's counter claim on the Romney-Ryan political ad.
These are the same caliber of people who do not want to acknowledge the Todd Akin Firestorm, the repeated hurdles and road blocks for voting rights, targeting small business owners who bear-hug the president, stand silent as soldier in combat is booed on stage by primary contenders, engage in purging voter roles to stem this precious right and continue to fight the Supreme court sanctioned PPACA. (formerly called RomneyCare, once called ObamaCares and now is the Health Care Act)
Ad to that president Obama ordered the taking out of Osama Bin Ladin in three years, while Bush languished seven years trying to get him.
I agree we should fire the republicans who stopped everything that would have helped the President and the American People. We need to vote as many as we can out of office, and send letters to the rest condeming them for what they did. A lot of letters from the people would put a crimp in their sillyness, and total disreguard for the people. I am so tired of their lies and ways to suppress votes.
This is my first post. Lets have some fun America....
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http://t.co/ldaQfMoz From Every1 Who Has Been Given Much - Much Will Be Demanded & From The 1 Who Has Been Entrusted With Much - Much More Will Be Asked http://t.co/u4iwEyVd
I cannot believe the gop would endorse such an idiot, he must be very rich, he is in bull@!$%#, that's for sure, check out his walk, no confidence, he's a weasel!
This country will always be screwed if we can't get the special interests out of politics. And of course the parties need to cooperate more and stop the bashing and consider the ones that put them there in the first place.