Nothing Bill Clinton Said To Defend His Welfare Reform Is True

[n2doc]

Everything Bill Clinton said Thursday to defend his 1996 welfare reform law was false.

Clinton claimed that he left the program with plenty of money for poor people, suggested that it helped reduce black poverty and that it was only the mean, nasty Republicans from the George W. Bush era who gutted it and hurt the poor. Clinton’s distortions of economic history and his own record are so outrageous that — you will be shocked — it is difficult to believe he was being honest.

Here’s what he told protesters at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia:

“They say the welfare reform bill increased poverty. Then why did we have the largest drop in African American poverty in history when I was president? The largest in history. What happened was, all these Republicans got into — the Supreme Court elected President Bush 5 to 4, then all these Republicans took over state legislatures. We left ‘em with enough money to take care of all the poor people who couldn’t go to work on welfare. We left ‘em with the money they had before the welfare rolls went down 60 percent. The Republicans took it away, and [these protesters are] blaming me.”

This is not true. Poverty dropped during the Clinton years not because of welfare reform, but because the entire American economy was being juiced by a massive stock market bubble. No credible economist even disputes this. The Clinton bubble was fueled by the aggressive financial deregulatory policies of Clinton and his Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan. When the stock market bubble burst, millions of people who previously would have received welfare fell into poverty.

Welfare reform was an intentional effort to curb financial assistance to poor people, on the grounds that many were simply too lazy to get a job. Clinton turned over a federal program to states, who were effectively allowed to slash welfare funding and impose new work requirements on people who received assistance. Even Republican co-architects of welfare reform concede that the program ended up hurting the poor.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bill-clinton-welfare-reform_us_5707cbf4e4b0c4e26a227a34

[yourpaljoey]

1. Does he think we don't know this?

I wonder

[n2doc]

2. Just Willie being Slick

And he is out of practice.

[yourpaljoey]

4. He was something to see in his heyday

[Kittycat]

3. Everything he said and did was an embarrassment

To his person, his wife who is running, and to our Democratic Party & Values.

He shouldn't maybe want to think about an apology. Given the position he held in this country, he should seek those individuals out, sit sown with them, personally apologize without excuse or qualification - then listen. Because when he's talking, he isn't listening or learning. After that, thank them - offer nothing, promise nothing. His actions from that moment forward would prove the value and worth of that apology and the time he spent listening and learning.

[peacebird]

5. The Clintons seem to be running a 1980s campaign, forgetting that we can research their lies

Instantly! Debunk them and get the word out also instantly.

We don't need their corporate M$M hacks.