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The Denigration Of Honest Hard Work

Gutting Welfare Reform And Devaluing Work Are Indicative of Barack Obama?s Core Values

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  July 16th, 2012 at 04:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In case you wondered what Barack Obama truly stands for you can watch that video I posted above and you won’t have to scratch your noggin any further. If you still have any doubts, we have the spectacle of Obama’s bureaucracy slipping a get out of effort free clause into the 1990’s Welfare Reform Act. ABC News describes the latest effort by our President to make dependency a way of life.

After the Obama administration announced this week that it is opening up waivers to states from the work requirements contained in welfare reform, Republicans began to speak out against the move, complaining it completely undercuts the law.
“The success of bipartisan welfare reform, passed under President Clinton, has rested on the obligation of work,” Gov. Mitt Romney wrote in a statement Friday. “The president’s action is completely misdirected. Work is a dignified endeavor, and the linkage of work and welfare is essential to prevent welfare from becoming a way of life.”

Poor, misinformed Mitt Romney. People shouldn’t have to work if they don’t want to. Government is supposed to plant clean, green money trees on everybody’s front lawn. That eighteen-month-old daughter of mine, she’s been promised the life of Julia! That is what the Modern Left shoots for. A life of total dependency.

This is not done out of concern for anyone’s future. State-sponsored benevolence is not undertaken for the sake of altruism. It revolves around power. It revolves around control. Anyone who gives you your living can make those gifts as conditional as they desire. As we saw with the fiasco that is Obamacare; we’ll just have to pass the bills to see what is in them.

So when President Obama denigrates hard work and self-sufficiency as fake and contrived while opening the spigots to poor out more welfare, he is telling you how he would prefer that America works. The more you depend upon the state and the less you employ individual initiative, the more that state controls you; the closer that state comes to owning you.

In Barack Obama’s view of America, the people must be broken to the beneficent will of the state. They cannot be trusted with initiative. They cannot be trusted with power. The people are to do as they are told. The State is to handle all the money. Big Brother is not good enough for the Obama State. They are running for reelection as your daddy.

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  • Brookhaven

    Did I miss something? Did they add some new amendments to the Constitution while I was asleep?

    Besides, just because the president issues the waivers, doesn’t mean the states have to accept it.

    • Repair_Man_Jack

      He took the authority and is daring us to stop him…

      • RichmondG30

        “He took the authority and is daring us to stop him?”

        And we are 0-fer in stopping him.. There is a long list of failed attempts (or worse, no attempt).

      • bgintn

        Congressman Sir,

        President Barack Obama just ILLEGALLY repealed the requirement for recipients of federal welfare benefits to have to find work.

        The Obama Administration issued a new directive stating that the traditional TANF work requirements can be waived or overridden by a legal device called the section 1115 waiver authority under the Social Security law (42 U.S.C. 1315).

        Section 1115 states that ?the Secretary may waive compliance with any of the requirements? of specified parts of various laws. But this is not an open-ended authority: Any provision of law that can be waived under section 1115 must be listed in section 1115 itself. The work provisions of the TANF program are contained in section 407 (entitled, appropriately, ?mandatory work requirements?). Critically, this section, as well as most other TANF requirements, are deliberately not listed in section 1115; they are not waiveable.

        In establishing TANF, Congress deliberately exempted or shielded nearly all of the TANF program from the section 1115 waiver authority. They did not want the law to be rewritten at the whim of Health and Human Services (HHS) bureaucrats. Of the roughly 35 sections of the TANF law, only one is listed as waiveable under section 1115. This is section 402. The authority to waive the option to waive state reporting requirements only, not to overturn the core requirements of the TANF program contained in the other sections of the TANF law.

        Congressional Research Service clarified that the limited authority to waive state reporting requirement in section 402 does not grant authority to override work and other major requirements in the other sections of the TANF law (sections that were deliberately not listed under the section 1115 waiver authority):

        “Technically, there is waiver authority for TANF state plan requirement; however, [the] major TANF requirements are not in state plans. Effectively, there are no TANF waivers.”

        This expansion of welfare if part of a carefully thought-out plan to appeal to Obama?s ?political base? at the expense of hard-working Americans.

        The U.S. Congress has a moral responsibility to stop this man from flouting our nation?s laws and bankrupting this great country.

        The Congress has the power to investigate, cut off funds and even impeach Health and Human Services Kathleen Sibelius if she continues to implement this illegal political scheme.

        As a taxpaying citizen of the United States, I do hereby ask that the U.S. Congress take whatever measures necessary to prevent Barack Obama from effectively repealing ?welfare reform? in a desperate attempt to secure his reelection.

        Sincerely,

  • RichmondG30

    along with his outrageous comments about small-business owners not being responsible for their success send a literal shiver down my spine.

    Anyone who doubts the do-or-die nature of the upcoming elections is surely not paying attention. Start working NOW to reach out to Independents you know. The stakes are enormous.

  • usadying

    It lowers the unemployment rate before the election.

    • Repair_Man_Jack

      I hadn’t thought of that weasal-souled angle. This is Obama we’re talking about. It is totally possible that he is THAT small a human being.

      • lineholder

        Traditionally speaking, Americans have been a society of very strong-willed, independent-minded, freedom-loving people with great respect for individualism.. That’s been one of our nation’s greatest strengths over the years. It’s the very epitome of the American spirit, reflected in the initiative, determination and perseverance of the pioneering spirit that contributed so much to this nation’s success over the years.

        The only way that the “fundamental transformation of America” that Obama has in mind can take place is if that traditional American spirit is broken.

        I think there are two things in particular that we can say beyond any shadow of doubt that we have learned about Barack Obama the man during the past three years. The first is that he very obviously supports statist-style socio-political theory (such as Marxism, Communism, etc and all the collectivism that comes with those theories). The second is that he is a man who displays classic traits of malignant narcissism.

        American Thinker did a great article about this two years ago. (The picture used in the article, in and of itself, speaks volumes, if you are familiar with the myth of Narcissus)

        http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/obamas_malignant_narcissism.html

        Personally, I believe the points made in the article to be valid points…and that Barack Obama is America’s modern-day Narcissus.

        Here’s what I think is the one of the most interesting parts, RMJ. By all accounts, narcissists have an excessive amount of confidence in their own power of persuasion. They live in a somewhat delusional world of their own making that makes it extremely difficult to acknowledge being in the wrong about anything. Even more importantly, those delusions lead them to believe that other human beings have no other choice than to break under to their narcissistic will.

        That isn’t true. It is just an illusion of projection and nothing more than an illusion. People do not have to break under…they can break away. By a conscious act of their own mind and will, the individual can choose to break away. And if they do, they become even more strong-willed and independent-minded than they were prior to the time that efforts to break them in spirit were made.

        He’s underestimating a significant portion of the American people, RMJ. We aren’t breaking under….we’re breaking away! Little by little, the choice to break away is being made, on an individual basis, by an ever-increasing number of people.

        We may be struggling with it a bit, because of the way it is changing the traditional relationship between the individual and our government. But we ARE breaking away!!!

  • emptybucket

    Obama videos and for our own health’s sake have decided to employ the mute button on all democrats for the next 3 months. I suppose this will make us less informed but with such well written diaries as yours, we will know what we have to know. Thank you.

    We are righteously angry at Obama declaring Americans haven’t and aren’t doing it on our own. That only via government are we able to succeed. How absolutely offensive is that…if Republicans do not make a big deal of Obama’s ridiculous speech from Friday am not sure what it will take to move them off their butts into campaign mode. So far Romney has done a couple of saavy things, like a sudden stop in front of a bankrupt company before the democrats had a chance to take down the “For Sale” sign. We loved the buses circling the Obama camp honking their horns. That type of humor is a breathe of fresh air.

    Thanks again for all the research and writing you do at RedState.

    • emptybucket

      for those who are in the position of needing government help. Most of the people we know would do anything possible to avoid taking a government handout, but if they did, at least the work requirement would help maintain some sense of dignity. Does Obama get anything about America?

      • renl57

        I grew up in a poor neighborhood in which there were quite a few welfare families. (In fact, when I was a kid, my best friend was from one of those welfare families.)

        And on a number of occasions, my parents tried–on their own–to find jobs for these welfare moms. My parents would tell them about businesses with Help Wanted signs and so on. But you couldn’t get those welfare moms to apply for those jobs. Their attitude was, “We’ve got enough to live on from the welfare check.” All initiative, all desire to improve themselves, had been smothered by years of dependency on AFDC. And of course, back then before welfare reform, AFDC didn’t push these welfare moms to look for work either.

  • http://stephenmartino.blogspot.com/ stevemartino

    Finally, today is the day that Obama really shows us what he truly believes. There is no longer any hiding or denying the facts. The man is a true fascist. Since he’s been in office, the power of the presidency has emboldened him. It’s like he can say anything without repercussions.
    When you hear what he said about success, it’s a confession. He’s literally telling America and the world that he is a 21st century fascist. He honestly believes that without government we are nothing. It’s not our hard work that made us successful. It’s not the hours extra spent doing a project that made the outcome turn out well. It’s not the long hours of studying that got you that degree. It’s not the sacrifices and hard work that got you to the top.

    No, it was the government. The government got you that degree. It was the government that got you that promotion. It wasn’t the hundred hours of overtime that go you that bonus. No it was Obama and his government.

    Well, if that’s the fact, I’d like to personally thank Obama for all the good in my life. I’d like to thank him, PERSONALLY, for my degrees, business and family. In fact, I’m going to forgo church and go directly to The White House every Sunday to give my savior, OBAMA, proper homage. We should change the Our Father to…”Our President, who art in the White House, hallow be thy name, OBAMA. Thy taxes come, thy will be done in America as it is in fascism. Give us this day our daily food stamps and forgive us our for our success as we forgive those who succeed more than we do. And lead us not into self-sufficiency but deliver us from capitalism. AMEN…I mean Hail Obama.”

    All joking aside. This is not funny! The man is more left than Hitler! In fact remember these slogans: “One people. One nation. One leader.” “Give me 4 years’ time.” “The President is always right.” Well, if you don’t, they’re a direct translation from the Nazi propaganda machine. What began as a troubling term in the White has turned into a nightmare. The man truly wants to kill America. He obviously doesn’t believe in the American dream and as more people get on the government doll, he has them believing the same things as him.

    It is sad how low our country has gone. Heaven help us if Obama has another 4 years!

    • aesthete

      That is exactly the attitude which all of these people are looking for out of the ruled (and that is all they consider us to be, of that you should have no doubt).

      Obama and his doppelgangers in the Republican party won’t admit it, but they live/ for the moments when they are idolized by the public for being perceived as providers of everything beneficent in their lives.

      However, I have to challenge the notion that Obama is either a communist as the developed world uses the term, or even a fascist. I’ve lived in Latin America and engaged the politics long enough to recognize a banana republic caudillo drunk on his own arrogance and propelled by his own ignorance. Obama is not sophisticated enough to hew to either ideology; both are much more rigorous than what he attempts. Instead, he is creating a bastardized mix of the same, as all caudillos do; making it up as he goes along. Whatever gets him more power, that is what he supports today. Whatever gets him people telling him, “Thank you President Obama, all I am I owe to you” is what he is about. To the extent that he can get it without work, so much the better. The rest (“hope and change”, Communism, fascism, etc) is window dressing. He just wants people to bend to him in the most petty ways imaginable simply to suit him, and that’s his bottom line.

      • Dave_A

        ntxt….

        • aesthete

          Maybe a little less ideological (though who knows what’s really rattling around in that brain of his).

          I think you’ve lived abroad (perhaps in one of our Latin American bases?), so perhaps you recognize the patterns. This administration and reactions to it are eerily like what I saw in Panama and Honduras when I lived in the region, and what I read in Spanish-language newspapers on countries in that region. (Humala of Peru gave a speech that sounded almost word-for-word like one that Obama gave in 2008 about moving past his leftist ideological connections for a stronger country etc. Wish I could find it again.)

          • Dave_A

            But South Korea, Iraq and Afganhistan do provide some insight into the workings of the 3rd world…

            Well, that and the well-documented history of S American misgovernance….

  • fightnright

    it’s time for his campaign to change the dynamics of his responses, which even Republican strategists, pundits and the conservative base are admitting are weak.

    Notice that the dialogue between the Obamites and the Romney team has been transformed into a one-sided cross-examination. The Dems make an extreme accusation in which the keywords of the claim remain in the headlines for days or weeks, like the latest Bain ‘felon or liar’ exchange.

    Given charges that lack substance or evidence, Romney is reduced to responding with replies that are honest and sensible, yet limp-wristed. The persecutors keep shouting ‘Have you stopped beating your wife, or are you still beating her?’, and Romney mildly refutes with ‘I have never beaten Ann’, and ‘I’m really a *good* husband. Barack Obama is the *bad* husband for leaving his children and mine with a staggering debt’.

    The media wars have started to take on the psychological structure of a Kafka novel. Mitt’s refutations are logically appropriate, but tactically worthless. Worse, the Romney team’s fair compliance to a rigged game ensures that Bain and any other future distractions/allegations become the most defining narratives of the campaign – a result to which the hardball-players on the left are accustomed. The Dems have had it too easy, and they shouldn’t be allowed to get too comfortable with this outcome.

    We’ve said it before, but it’s about time Mitt, his SuperPacs, and the right-wing media respond *in kind*. We too must utilize this highly effective tactic. WE should be asking the loaded questions, and leveling the charges. And we have far more ammunition to work with, enough to take us easily from now through Labor Day, and until the election.

    So forget the symmetrical dialogue. Mitt Romney should re-frame the direction of lopsided debates as ALL Democrat spokespersons do, and rhetorically transform himself from Casper Milquetoast into (at the very least) Debbie Wasserman-Schultz:

    “After almost 4 years, where is ONE budget plan that you can show and explain to the American public, President Obama? Are YOU unable to lead, OR are Democrats afraid to let citizens know where the US stands economically now, or how much of their hard-earned money is being squandered – and on what? Which is it?”

    “We’ve lost a Border Patrol Agent due to a program under your watch, President Obama, for which no one in your administration has taken responsibility or provided full and relevant documentation. If, as you’ve said “most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO, and president of a company, that you are responsible for what that company does”, is it YOU who have abdicated responsibility for the botching of Fast and Furious from 2008 on, OR is it the Attorney General you appointed, Eric Holder?”

    “President Obama, you initially claimed you could not ignore current immigration law, or impose an immigration policy like the Dream Act unilaterally, as there “are laws on the books I have to enforce.” Were you LYING then, OR did you just choose to stomp on those laws on the books?”

    …and so on, where there are dozens of other valid accusations that this Administration and its unethical leader must answer to.

    And *whenever Romney speaks*, he must never let go the force of our legitimate inquiries. Not for days, not for weeks on end. *Obama* must be publicly defined by his criminal actions. That is the narrative which should be echoing through the electorate’s consciousness.

  • jaykali

    And yet this is just going to die quietly. I am indignant. This is at least as good as “spreading the wealth around”. Why is is not getting more play? I don’t even see my usual goto blogs writing much ab this. He is absolutely telling America in a nutshell what he believes, government is creator of all, and they allow you to keep some of your money and start businesses as long as you giveth your fair share back. Amazing.

  • Xasteius

    is that Obama says the things he does and slightly less than half the electorate approves of the job he is doing.

  • bobmark

    can count on the support of Paul” Have heard Bernie Goldberg say this, but don’t know if it is his. Whatever, it explains everything about this administration.

    • bobmark

      nt

  • spandrel

    which is here (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/policy/im-ofa/2012/im201203/im201203.html)

    It explicitly says

    “HHS is encouraging states to consider new, more effective ways to meet the goals of TANF, particularly helping parents successfully prepare for, find, and retain employment. Therefore, HHS is issuing this information memorandum to notify states of the Secretary?s willingness to exercise her waiver authority under section 1115 of the Social Security Act to allow states to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies, and procedures that are designed to improve employment outcomes for needy families.”

    This seems like a good thing to me. No?

    • ivegot1stupidpointomake

      I didn’t see what was bad about this. I think this sort of thing is often worked out better on the state level.

    • commonsenseobserver

      It doesn’t just give states more flexibility, it guts the entire work requirement by making it virtually optional and creating vast loopholes.

      • commonsenseobserver

        But it remains a fact that the administration gutted welfare-to-work and, as usual, ignored the constitutional separation of powers.