Did anyone catch this little nugget tucked inside Clinton's discussion on welfare reform?

[nanabugg]

When he said it, ears perked up...the teabaggers don't want to hear this...Rush, were you listening?

Nobody ever tells you what really happened. Here's what
happened. When some Republican governors asked if they could
have waivers to try new ways to put people on welfare back to
work, the Obama administration listened, because we all know
it's hard for even people with good work histories to get jobs
today, so moving folks from welfare to work is a real challenge.
And the administration agreed to give waivers to those
governors and others only if they had a credible plan to
increase employment by 20 percent and they could keep the
waivers only if they did increase employment.
Now, did -- did I make myself clear? The requirement was
for more work, not less.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/05/transcript-bill-clinton-speech-at-dnc/#ixzz25iZBUrrd

[PDJane]

1. Yep. I caught it.

And I also caught that Romney doubled down on the lie this morning.

[nanabugg]

4. I wish Obama would double down on this point tonight and make an ad thereafter to play behind the

deceiving Romney ad.

[avebury]

2. K&R nt

[patrice]

3. I noted that. Kind of puts the Republicans in the position, AGAIN, of bitching about compliance with

their own critique of "big government", doesn't it?

[dragonlady]

9. It takes a lot of brass to do that n/t

[SunSeeker]

5. That little nugget needs to be repeated over and over and over and over.

Because the Repukes continue to repeat their lies.

[nanabugg]

6. I agree. And they should name names about who asked for the waivers first. nt

[SunSeeker]

8. Do you know who they were? Let's name them here!

[nanabugg]

10. Don't know but the fact-checkers must be busy. I wish Obama would name them tonight. nt

[SunSeeker]

13. It was Sandoval (Nevada) and Herbert (Utah).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romney-again-puts-gop-governors-in-delicate-spot/2012/08/07/fa15e2d6-e0c7-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_blog.html

[beac]

18. Well, a certain governor of Massachusetts asked for one back in 2005:

The Obama administration created the waiver option in response to governors’ contentions that they could produce better results unbound by inflexible federal welfare rules.

The letter Romney signed seven years ago, along with 28 other members of the Republican Governors Association, made a similar argument.

“Romney is falsely criticizing a policy he once supported that empowers states to implement welfare reform,” Obama policy director James Kvaal said.

The Obama administration created the waiver option in response to governors’ contentions that they could produce better results unbound by inflexible federal welfare rules.

The letter Romney signed seven years ago, along with 28 other members of the Republican Governors Association, made a similar argument.

“Romney is falsely criticizing a policy he once supported that empowers states to implement welfare reform,” Obama policy director James Kvaal said.


http://www.boston.com/politicalintelligence/2012/08/07/romney-accuses-obama-waiving-welfare-work-requirements/aCx5F3hPGNdjYxTeRlcq7M/story.html

http://democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/112/2005_Romney_Letter.pdf (copy of Mittens' letter asking for a waiver)

[BadgerKid]

7. Could the 20% have been negotiable?

I guess it makes a better GOP talking point to say Obama didn't want to work with them.

I caught Pres. Clinton's nugget of info on the replay, yet I hadn't heard of it before. Repeating it throughout the election season might help to sway those right-leaning people who think "people on welfare are too lazy to work."

[nanabugg]

11. let's keep it going and maybe someone will give the names. nt

[SunSeeker]

16. It was Republican Governors Brian Sandoval (Nevada) and Gary Herbert (Utah).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romney-again-puts-gop-governors-in-delicate-spot/2012/08/07/fa15e2d6-e0c7-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_blog.html

Snip:

Asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the assertions in Romney’s ad, both offices declined to say, instead sticking to defendiing the policies their own states were pursuing under the waiver. They also would not answer when asked whether the White House, in rolling out the new policy, had simply given them what they wanted.

The statement from Utah Governor Gary Herbert’s office said: “Utah’s request for a waiver stems from a desire for increased customization of the program to maximize employment among Utah’s welfare recipients,” adding that the state had needed “flexibility to customize work-focused solutions.”

Meanwhile, the statement from Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s office maintained that its request to the White House was “not a request to weaken work requirements“ or a request for a “waiver to eliminate welfare work requirements for recipients.”

[Brother Buzz]

12. The ramifications will be totally lost on the dittoheads

All they will hear is 'some Republican governors got waivers' and rejoice, "State's rights, Woohoo!".

[nanabugg]

15. Doesn't mean we shouldn't tell them. nt

[Brother Buzz]

17. Go ahead and try. I gave up trying to communicate with them years ago

[TheKentuckian]

14. Compromise buys nothing other than frustration on our end.

The thing that bugs is people actually expecting some fruit from this barren fruit and actually playing upset when things come out EXACTLY as any honest observer of our politics would expect.

[mykpart]

19. Begins to sound like a setup,

probably engineered by Karl Rove. Get the President to give waivers, then accuse him of doing away with work requirement.

[Hamlette]

20. I don't think it was a set up but something odd happened. I work in the "welfare" office

in Utah, one of the states that asked for a waiver. The Department's executive director and the governor, both Mormons and very conservative republicans (duh, isn't everyone in office in Utah?) wrote a letter asking for waiver authority. When TANF (what we used to call welfare) was up for reauthorization last year congress discussed allowing waivers but it was not voted on or passed. Our letter was intended to say we want congress to allow waivers.

apparently HHS determined it did have the authority to issue waivers and wrote the letter saying it would.

Under the current TANF rules a recipient must work a certain number of hours. going to school to get a high school degree or GED qualifies but only for 8 of those hours per week. I think the total number of hours is around 30. None of the other time getting education counts toward the work requirement.

we thought it was important to make sure people got their high school degree or GED because it would make it possible to get better jobs. Remember, TANF is ONLY for families with dependent children so think of a lifetime of the kind of crappy jobs you get without a GED.

When the story first broke people, including our Senator, Orin Hatch, made some awful, intemperate statements (like the kind Romney is making now) about the waivers without calling the governor or our director first. There was much angst about that. There remains much angst about how Romney is portraying what happened.

Think about this, Mormons are a pretty tight group and they stick together. Our director is not at all happy about how Romney, another mormon, is portraying this.

And she got transferred to another department. I'd love to know the back story on that. I'll keep digging. No one is fessing up now.