Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., one of the key architects of the bipartisan 1996 welfare reform law, said today on a conference call that President Obama acted in “absolute contempt for the law and the constitution” when he changed federal welfare policy last month.
“Welfare reform was premised on two basic things,” Santorum said. “We are going to put in a tough work requirement and we are going to put time limits. We believed in them so firmly that we were not going to allow the governors or future administrations to change this by fiat or executive order or regulations.”
But, Santorum claims, that is exactly what a memo issued last month by Obama’s Health and Human Services Department does.
“This president is obviously orientating his administration to weaken this work requirement and potentially gut this work requirement,” Santorum explained. “The only question is by how much and how quickly.”
Santorum was also completely dismissive of the idea that Obama only issued the memo so that he could strengthen the welfare work requirements. “The idea that they are going to strengthen this work requirement is absurd. … When you look at the fact that this president waived the work requirement on food stamps in 2009, has increased the amount of government dependency … you are seeing a pattern here.”
Santorum then tied Obama’s unilateral welfare policy change to a larger lawless pattern of behavior. “When you act the way the president has acted, with contempt for the law, it is absolute contempt for the law and the Constitution. And by the way he has done on repeated occasion over the past several months in office on immigration on his health care law and other things.”
