Bill Clinton slams new Romney welfare ad, says it is disappointing
Published August 08, 2012FoxNews.com
NEW YORK – Former President Bill Clinton is leaping to President Obama's defense after a new Romney attack ad accused the president of tearing down one of the signature bipartisan accomplishments from Clinton's term.
The Romney ad asserts the Obama administration is weakening the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, welfare reforms that Clinton passed with a Republican Congress. It claims the president's plan would "gut welfare reform" by dropping work requirements.
The administration rejects that description and says it's not unilaterally repealing or waiving the law but giving states the chance to make changes to their welfare programs. Some Republican governors have requested that flexibility.Clinton backed up the Obama administration in a Tuesday night statement, slamming Romney's assertion as "not true" and calling the ad "misleading."
"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," the statement said.
Clinton says he finds the Romney ad especially disappointing because Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, sought changes in the welfare law that Clinton says could have eliminated time limits important to the reform effort.
The Romney campaign responded to Clinton's criticisms, insisting that the Obama administration has undermined the central premise of the 1996 reforms.
"Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney has a record of fighting to strengthen work requirements," Romney Campaign Spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement. "As president, he will ensure that nearly sixteen years of progress aren’t erased with one stroke of a pen."
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