Bill Clinton: Romney Welfare Ad “Not True”

Former President Clinton has issued a press release blasting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for an ad about welfare reform and President Obama as “not true.”

In the ad, Romney claims that Obama is loosening requirements for welfare recipients and undoing some of the welfare reform that President Clinton signed into law. Observers have noted that many Republican governors asked for the flexibility in the rules that Obama has allowed — including Romney.

Clinton’s statement explains that “Governor Romney released an ad today alleging that the Obama administration had weakened the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That is not true.” Clinton also notes, “The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment.”

Clinton has endorsed President Obama’s re-election and has raised funds towards that goal.

President Clinton’s full statement on the false Romney ad:

“Governor Romney released an ad today alleging that the Obama administration had weakened the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That is not true.

The act emerged after years of experiments at the state level, including my work as Governor of Arkansas beginning in 1980. When I became President, I granted waivers from the old law to 44 states to implement welfare to work strategies before welfare reform passed.

After the law was enacted, every state was required to design a plan to move people into the workforce, along with more funds to help pay for training, childcare and transportation. As a result, millions of people moved from welfare to work.

The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment. The Administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach. The welfare time limits, another important feature of the 1996 act will not be waived.

The Romney ad is especially disappointing because, as governor of Massachusetts, he requested changes in the welfare reform laws that could have eliminated time limits altogether. We need a bipartisan consensus to continue to help people move from welfare to work even during these hard times, not more misleading campaign ads.”