This time President Obama has decided that those on Welfare should not have to work. Therefore, he unilaterally and illegally gutted provisions from the 1996 welfare bill with a simple memorandum. He is not even bothering to use Executive Orders anymore! How long until he issues his fiats from a throne room rather than the Oval Office?
Obama’s latest command came in the form of a memorandum issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This memorandum, dated July 12, 2012, effectively guts the work requirements found in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) legislation passed in 1996. This move will put more people on welfare and is an attempt by Obama to buy off the American people so he can win the next Presidential election. It is despicable, illegal, and tyrannical. He must be stopped. We must immediately demand a Congressional investigation into the President’s actions. They are illegal and must be overturned by Congress.
The TANF legislation is what most people colloquially refer to as welfare. Welfare legislation in this country currently costs taxpayers nearly a TRILLION dollars every single year. We pay people not to work and we wonder why our economy is in the toilet. TANF was passed in 1996 after a hard fought battle in Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton. It has been administered by HHS ever since.
Without getting bogged down the legislative details, TANF requires that at least half of each state’s welfare participants work at least 30 hours a week. There a various exemptions to the law, but that is gist. This information can be found in 42 U.S.C. 1315 section 407 under the title “Mandatory Work Requirements”.
Section 1115 of the legislation is where the trouble begins. In section 1115 there is language that allows for selected provisions of TANF to be waived by state government under certain circumstances. However, ONLY THE SECTIONS SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED IN SECTION 1115 MAY BE WAIVED. Section 1115 only lists one section with such waiver authority: section 402. Section 407 is not mentioned.
If Congress had intended that section 407 contain the section 1115 waiver authority, they would have specifically listed it in that section AS REQUIRED BY THE LAW.
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Our imperialist President argues that section 402 gives him the authority to waive welfare work requirements. For a law professor, he sure is clueless when it comes to the law. Section 402 deals only with state reporting requirements. It has NOTHING to do with the mandatory work requirement language found five sections later. His argument is pure fantasy and do not make his action any less illegal.Rep. David Camp (R-MI), Chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, stated “This is a brazen and unwarranted unraveling of welfare reform…this ends welfare reform as we know it.” This is just another example of President Obama ignoring the Constitution and taking power that is not his to administer. We are living in a truly frightening time for democracy. This power monger MUST BE STOPPED.
Outside of the various legal and constitutional items at play here, there are also economic and political issues that must be addressed. First off, destroying the work requirement will add millions of people who will be receiving government support. President Obama has already increased our debt by $5 TRILLION in just 3 years!!! That number is larger than the debt increase under President George W. Bush and was in office for eight years!
Do you think our economy can handle the strain of more mouths to feed? Perhaps that is why Democrats are balking at reauthorizing the Bush era tax cuts. The Congressional Budget Office has said that allowing the tax cuts to sunset will make America fall of a “fiscal cliff”. But Democrats and liberals don’t care about facts and figures; they just want more power so that they can take more of your money, your rights, and your freedom.
This is clearly a political move by Obama and his liberal cronies. The more people there are on welfare and in need of government assistance, the more votes for Obama and the rest of his freedom hating compatriots.
As we have shown, this plan by Obama will further erode the US economy. Beyond that, if Obama is allowed to proceed, then the demarcation line between the Executive and Cameral branches will be unconstitutionally blurred. HE MUST BE STOPPED. We desperately need Congress to hear your voice. Time is short.
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President Obama is becoming more and more brazen in his attempts to undercut Congressional authority. He is ignoring the rule of law nearly across the board on issues for which he disagrees. He seems to believe that he has the right to ignore laws he doesn’t like so that he can move his agenda forward regardless of what the American people have expressed through their legislators in Congress.President Obama is a clear and present threat to liberty and the Constitution. We must have your voice telling Congress to stop him. His actions show a man who is clearly looking to mute Congress and take their power for himself. If Congress doesn’t stop him now, how will they stop him later? Save our Constitution, our rights, and our economy today; fax Congress and demand a special Congressional investigation.
Sincerely,
Tony Adkins
Conservative-Daily
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