Newt Gingrich took the GOP convention stage in Tampa on Thursday with his wife, Callista, and declared that President Obama has fallen far short of President Ronald Reagan’s commitment to welfare reform by “waiving” the work requirement signed into law in the 1990s.
“Tragically, President Obama gutted this achievement,” Gingrich said. “And, like Jimmy Carter, over four years he produced little effective legislation that brought the two parties together in the interest of the nation. Obama’s waiving of the work requirements in welfare reform is just one example of his direct repudiation of President Reagan’s values.”
Gingrich previously admitted there was “no proof” to the Romney campaign’s assertion that Obama gutted the work requirement, but said it is “absolutely true that he would be comfortable sending a lot of people checks for doing nothing.”
The Obama administration this year signaled that they would be willing to waive some requirements of the 1996 welfare reform law if states could come up with ways to increase work reintroduction by at least 20 percent. Several Republican governors even requested such waivers.
