President Obama’s Health and Human Services Department undermined the work requirement legislated in the 1996 welfare reform bill, but 83 percent of Americans disagree with the president on that position.
“Most Americans think there are too many people on welfare who should not be getting it and believe overwhelmingly that those who do receive welfare benefits should be required to work,” Rasmussen Reports, a conservative pollster, announced today.
Eighty-three percent of Americans surveyed support a work requirement as a condition of receiving welfare, while just seven percent oppose the requirement, Rasmussen said.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacked Obama last week when HHS declared that it has the power to waive the work requirement. “The success of bipartisan welfare reform, passed under President Clinton, has rested on the obligation of work,” Romney said. “The president’s action is completely misdirected. Work is a dignified endeavor, and the linkage of work and welfare is essential to prevent welfare from becoming a way of life.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who negotiated welfare reform with then-President Bill Clinton, also denounced the move. “Obama’s suspension of workfare requirements is almost certainly illegal, a sign of the jobs failure, and a reminder how liberal [O]bama is,” he said.
