With a swipe of his pen, President Obama single handedly wiped out years of extremely successful welfare reform. The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 replaced the former welfare system, Aide to Families With Dependent Children, with TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). The crux of this replacement was that it required anyone receiving welfare to be working. The Heritage Foundation offers a good analysis:
The welfare reform law was very successful. In the four decades prior to welfare reform, the welfare caseload never experienced a significant decline. But, in the four years after welfare reform, the caseload dropped by nearly half. Employment surged and child poverty among affected groups plummeted. The driving force behind these improvements was the rigorous new federal work requirements contained in the TANF law.
Working for money. To most, this is common sense, but to the president it is unacceptable to make anyone work for OTHER people’s tax dollars; they should be simply have the money handed to them. If money is handed to you, where is the incentive to work? There is no incentive, which is why those on welfare never got off of it until they actually had to start working. It may seem so simple to the average American, but apparently there are some in Washington who need an Econ 101 class refresher.
Not only was the program extremely successful, but also written into the bill was a specific line that said these work requirements could not be waived. We cannot allow our President to dictate what he does and does not like about our democratic system with nothing more than a slash of his pen. He must be held accountable. So, to review, President Obama illegally got rid of a successful and extremely popular program that was nothing but beneficial to the economy. Someone get this man a prize.