"Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression." --James Madison
Government
"The imperial Presidency has overturned Congress and the law again. Not content to stop at rewriting immigration policy, education policy and energy policy, Thursday, President Obama's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements that were the foundation of the Clinton-era reform. ... Welfare reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). ... The whole point was that able-bodied adults should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving welfare aid. This reform was very successful. TANF became the only welfare program (out of more than 70) that promoted greater self-reliance. It moved 2.8 million families off the welfare rolls and into jobs so that they were providing for themselves. Child poverty fell, and single-parent employment rose. Recipients were required to perform at least 20-30 hours per week of work or job preparation activities in exchange for the cash benefit. Now, Obama's HHS is claiming that it can waive those work requirements that are at the heart of the law, and without Congress's consent. When it established TANF, Congress deliberately exempted or shielded nearly all of the TANF program from waiver authority. ... The TANF reform was one small step in the direction of reducing Americans' dependence on government programs and getting them back on their feet. Cutting its work component is likely to unnecessarily swell the ranks of welfare recipients and with no way to pay for it." --Heritage Foundation's Amy Payne
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