Welfare check

By Mustang Bobby 

The Romney campaign ran a few ads last month perpetrating the lie the President Obama wanted to roll back the work requirements in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. Just about everybody called them out on it, including the major fact-checkers. They still ran with it, though.

But it turns out it wasn't the Democrats in Congress or President Obama who wanted to gut the work requirements. It was the Republicans:

The legislation — H.R. 4297, The Workforce Investment Improvement Act — was unveiled in March by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and cosponsored by six Republican colleagues. Among them was Education & Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN), who passed the bill through his committee in June.

The measure is aimed at streamlining workforce training by letting states slash redundant programs and consolidate them with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare program — into one Workforce Investment Fund (WIF). States would be given so much flexibility that the restrictions in the 1996 welfare law need no longer apply, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Oops. I guess the Romney campaign didn’t check with their answering service. But why let a good dog-whistle go to waste?

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)