More politics news

Sen. Scott Brown features Democrat Paul Walsh in new TV ad

Brown has been running a series of ads showcasing his endorsements from Democrats, as he faces a tight race against Democrat Elizabeth Warren in liberal-leaning Massachusetts.

Former President Bill Clinton, who signed the 1996 law reforming welfare, said claims by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that Democratic President Barack Obama weakened the reform act by getting rid of work requirements are not true.

“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,” Clinton said in a statement issued by his foundation.

Romney previously put out an ad charging that Obama "quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements."

The charge came after the Obama administration issued waivers giving states the flexibility to tailor welfare programs to meet their needs. The White House said, and independent fact-checkers have confirmed, that the administration still requires states to connect people to work. The administration's letter says states have the flexibility to institute changes that will "improve employment outcomes."

Clinton, in his statement, said Obama’s waiver policy was requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada “to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment.” Clinton wrote, “The Administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach.”

Clinton noted that time limits on welfare, also instituted as part of the 1996 act, would not be waived.

Clinton added, “The Romney ad is especially disappointing because, as governor of Massachusetts, he requested changes in the welfare reform laws that could have eliminated time limits altogether.”

Clinton was referring to a letter signed by Romney and other Republican governors in 2005 asking Congress for state flexibility in implementing welfare programs, including in areas such as the time limits.

Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said, “President Obama was a vocal opponent of the innovative, bipartisan welfare reforms that President Clinton and a Republican Congress passed in 1996. His administration has now undermined the central premise of those reforms by gutting the welfare-to-work requirement. Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney has a record of fighting to strengthen work requirements. As president, he will ensure that nearly sixteen years of progress aren’t erased with one stroke of a pen.”

The Romney campaign continued to push the attack with a web video released Wednesday again accusing Obama of gutting the landmark welfare reform law. The ad cited a number of Democrats, including Clinton, praising the 1996 law. The ad then quotes Obama, as a state senator, saying he would probably not have supported the 1996 bill. (Obama said at the time that he believes work is better than welfare, but the bill did not address related problems like a lack of job growth, low minimum wage, or helping people who have no basic skills.) The ad says Obama would "take the work out of welfare."

The Romney campaign sent out statements from several Republican politicians making similar points.

The Obama campaign responded with its own video calling the claims false and saying Romney was "flexible on welfare and on the truth."

