Tell Congress: Draft Legislation to Make States 'Pay Their Way' through Welfare Programs

During the 2008 presidential campaign a woman famously bragged on-camera that she wouldn’t have to worry about paying her mortgage or putting gas in her car, because she was going to “help” Obama by getting him elected, and then he would help her by taking care of all her needs.

It seems she wasn’t far off with her prediction.

This July, Barack Obama bypassed Congress — again — and quietly renewed work-waivers for states, ensuring that his gutting of welfare reform remains a reality for yet another year.

And according to a September 14 report from the Congressional Research Service has shown that Obama’s own welfare “reforms” since he took office has already caused the number of food stamp recipients to double. 

So how did we get here?

In 1996, Congress passed and Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act effectively curbing and reforming our up-until-that-point unbridled welfare system, and, as a result, poverty dropped. A Heritage report notes that “the reform successfully helped move welfare recipients off of the rolls and into jobs and cut the welfare caseload by half within five years.” How? Work was mandated.

In 1996 work became a requirement for “able-bodied adults without dependents” (ABAWDs) to receive benefits. Specifically, these individuals were required to fulfill one of the below options or forego aid altogether after their 3-month limit:

·         Work at least half-time (20 hours in a week)

·         Participate in an employment and training program for at least 20 hours per week; or

·         Participate in a SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program) “workfare” program for at least 20 hours per week.

However, after Obama became President all of this changed – tucked within the many pages of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Section 101(e) removed the time-limits for individuals who were not working 20 hours a week. This little provision lasted for over a year (April 2009 – September 30, 2010) and has been “silently renewed” by the President ever since for the sake of “economic recovery”.

Since Obama continues to ignore our system of government, alert citizens like us need to continue to push back against his un-Constitutional actions by forcing Congress to stop his behavior, or at least, to prevent his proclamations from taking effect.

Petition your US Representative and Senators now and tell them to draft legislation eliminating federal aid to states who take advantage of Obama's latest gutting of "Work Free" welfare. Let states who go along with Obama’s welfare system pay their own way. Contact the US Congress now and make sure they know you are outraged that President Obama is acting alone as a dictator!