Obama's Welfare Reform Fib

Barack Obama has begun airing a television spot in multiple states touting himself as a mover and shaker behind welfare reform.  The ad boldly claims that legislation "passed by Obama" slashed the welfare rolls by 80%.  It can be viewed here.

The problem?  The only meaningful welfare reform law that significantly reduced the caseload was passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996.  And what did Obama think about that law?  He opposed it:

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Gregory Wallace Report: Barack Obama aligned himself with welfare reform on Monday, launching a television ad which touts the way the overhaul "slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Obama leaves out, however, that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the caseload reduction.

While the states played an important role in helping people make the transition from welfare to work, the truly controversial decision which sparked the dramatic reduction in the welfare rolls was the one made by Clinton at the federal level.

The bill passed by a Republican Congress and signed by Clinton included work requirements and time limits. It included fewer supports for people moving from welfare-to-work than Clinton had originally envisioned. Though later restored at the federal level, it also included an end to benefits for legal immigrants which both Clinton and Obama found objectionable.   

Clinton said it was far from perfect legislation. But unlike Obama who looked at its flaws and said he probably would not have supported it, Clinton signed it.

Far from being something other than a typical politician, Obama, the self-proclaimed agent of change, has frequently ducked and obfuscated when asked if he would have supported what is likely one of the most significant domestic policy changes of its era:

While campaigning for president in 2007, Obama refused on two occasions to say if he would have signed the same welfare-reform bill approved by the husband of his top rival.

After addressing the International Association of Firefighters on March 14, 2007, Obama told ABC News, "I tend not to look back to what would have been done 10 years ago. We’re talking about what I’m going to be doing for the next 10 years."

When ABC News posed the same question four months later, Obama again refused to answer.

"I’m not going to re-litigate what happened back in the 90s," said Obama at a July 17, 2007, press conference in Washington, D.C. "I'm talking about what's going to be happening going forward."

"Bill Clinton isn't on the ballot," he added.

Once he had become the Democratic frontrunner in the spring of 2008, Obama signaled that he had always backed the 1996 welfare reform.

Now, with the Democratic nomination firmly in hand, Obama is going one step further. In an ad airing in 18 states, including 14 carried by President Bush in 2004, Obama is celebrating a reduction in the welfare caseload made possible by legislation he originally opposed.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer political blog states that the ad carries a "whiff of doubt":

But he's taking too much personal credit by saying he "passed laws."

And some of those laws were not even on the federal level.

True, news accounts give him credit for sponsoring measures in the Illinois legislature that moved people from welfare to work.

But those reforms came about only because former President Clinton and Congress ordered welfare reforms. And some experts say the 80 percent drop in the welfare rolls came partly from administrative changes brought on by the Illinois governor, also a champion of welfare reform.

In fact, any change in law comes about because a majority of elected officials agree to the changes.

The same civics lesson applies to what he will do if elected president.

He won't end tax breaks or reward job creation unless a majority in Congress approves the changes.

Because of these exaggerations, we say this spots has a whiff of doubt.

It's important to note that Obama's ad doesn't state whether the welfare reform he supposedly "passed" was at the state or federal level.  It may be true that Obama voted for legislation while an Illinois state senator that helped to facilitate the mechanics of how welfare reform would work in Illinois.  Had it been up to a President Obama, however, those votes wouldn't have been necessary because the enactment of welfare reform would have never happened in the first place.  Needless to say, Obama's perfectly happy to let voters draw the conclusion, after being carefully manipulated, that he actually supported the federal welfare reform law.

Such dishonesty suggests that the opportunistic Barack Obama would do or say just about anything to gain political power.  The American voters should take this disturbing reality into account when deciding for whom to pull the lever in November.