“Give me a break,” former President Clinton said of then-candidate Barack Obama back in 2008. “This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.” This week at the Democratic National Convention, of course, Clinton sang a different tune. But he was right the first time.
Take welfare reform, of which Clinton said Wednesday, “[Republicans] actually have charged and run ads saying that President Obama wants to weaken the work requirements in the welfare reform bill I signed. … 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. … 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 I make myself clear? The requirement was for more work, not less.”
