The New York Post‘s Charles Hurt reports:
You’ll remember from the campaign that one of Obama’s signature accomplishments as an Illinois State Senator was that he “passed a law to move people from welfare to work – slashed the rolls by 80 percent.” Well, he didn’t personally pass the law, he was a co-sponsor. At the time, credit was given to the state’s Republican governor and President Clinton, who pushed welfare reform through at the federal level. Obama said then that he “probably would not have supported the federal legislation,” and that he found President Clinton’s position on the issue “disturbing.” During the campaign Obama was particularly sensitive to the allegation that his tax cuts amounted to “welfare” by providing credits to individuals who paid no income tax at all. The press likewise suggested that any criticism of Obama’s welfare-like policies amounted to thinly veiled racism. It would be ironic then if Obama’s first major act as president was a massive expansion of welfare — and a massive expansion of medicare — without any debate at all.
