Ah yes... all that's old is new again. Republicans never get tired of demonizing welfare recipients and the poor, do they? While discussing what the strategy for the House Republicans should be in order for them to gain more power leading up to the 2012 election on Fox’s Journal Editorial Report, The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund has this suggestion for them.

FUND: Here’s another idea. The stimulus bill killed most of the welfare reforms that Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996. I think those were very popular. They were also very successful. The Republicans can vote out a restoration of those welfare reform rules and dare the Senate to turn them down because I think that would be a great polarizing issue.

It looks like the Wall Street Journal and some right wing think tanks have been beating this drum for some time now as you can see from these articles:

Stimulus Bill Abolishes Welfare Reform and Adds New Welfare Spending

The Return of Welfare As We Knew It

And there are hundreds more articles out there just like those two from right wing blogs and think tanks. I believe this is the section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that they are complaining about. It would be nice to have some analysis on this from some place besides the right wing think tanks and The Wall Street Journal, but I've yet to find any, although I did find one from Truthout on how many of the states were not even taking advantage of the funds --States Ignoring Stimulus Welfare Fund