Intercept: "John Kasich and the Clintons Collaborated on Law That Helped Double Extreme Poverty"

[Mufaddal]

Note: I originally posted this elsewhere, but felt it would be better suited here. I deleted the original post.

Hillary Clinton was involved with publicly advocating for passage and implementation of welfare reform in her role as first lady. In a Newsweek cover story in 1993, she weighed in on the upcoming welfare reform debate.

“How do we as a society address the 15-year-old mother on welfare? What do we owe her? Can we demand a set of behavioral standards from her?” asked the interviewer. “Sure, I’ve been talking about that since 1973,” replied the first lady. “You know, I am one of the first people who wrote about how rights and responsibilities had to go hand in hand.”

“When you talk about moving someone to work from welfare in two years, what happens to people who don’t want to work? Would you impose sanctions?” followed up the interviewer. “Oh, I think you have to. What happened in Arkansas is that people who refused for whatever reason to participate had their benefits cut,” she replied.

Hillary Clinton continued to defend the welfare cutback over the years. “Too many of those on welfare had known nothing but dependency all their lives, and many would have found it difficult to make the transition to work on their own,” she wrote in a 1999 op-ed. In a 2002 interview she said the policy has resulted in recipients “no longer” being “deadbeats — they’re actually out there being productive.”

Full article: https://theintercept.com/2016/02/13/john-kasich-and-the-clintons-collaborated-on-law-that-helped-double-extreme-poverty-in-america/

My own personal view (with which I'm sure others will disagree, as they are obviously free to do) is that "disgusting" doesn't even begin to describe this. I could not bring myself to cast a vote for anyone with this policy history or views, which to me are representative of a morality so backwards and broken as to be offensive.

Workfare was and remains nothing short of a cynical war on America's most poor and vulnerable. It is an enduring tragedy, and it is baffling to me that anyone--especially on the left--is willing to engage in the level of mental gymnastics required to defend it, or those who worked so rigorously to implement it.

[FreakinDJ]

1. The Progressive who likes to get things done

[BernieforPres2016]

4. Bernie Sanders and John Kasich on welfare reform, 3/30/95

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. There are a lot of 'things' I don't want to 'get done'.

And Clinton seems to want to do them all.

[WillyT]

2. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[tk2kewl]

3. wow

i did not know she actually called welfare recipients "deadbeats"

[Fawke Em]

6. A lot of people don't.

If I were canvassing South Carolina, I'd have that in a talking point. I may use it here in Tennessee. We're poor states where welfare is frequently a necessity no matter how hard we work.

[grasswire]

7. so In Arkansas she brought those "deadbeat single moms" of color TO HEEL.

What a despicable woman.

[farleftlib]

8. There are no words for how disgraceful this is

So much for Hillary's early much-vaunted advocacy for children:

Hillary Clinton’s advocacy for welfare reform strained her relationship with her mentor and former boss, Marian Wright Edelman, the head of the Children’s Defense Fund. After the signing of the bill, Edelman wrote that “President Clinton’s signature on this pernicious bill makes a mockery of his pledge not to hurt children.”

During an interview on Democracy Now in 2007, Edelman described her changed relationship with the Clintons, saying, “Hillary Clinton is an old friend, but they are not friends in politics.”

And then there's this. Hillary's current supporter had this to say about it at the time:

One of the leading dissenters in the House was Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. “The bill we are considering today is a bad bill. I will vote against it and I urge all people of conscience to vote against it. It is a bad bill because it penalizes children for the actions of their parents,” he thundered. “This bill, Mr. Speaker, will put 1 million more children into poverty. How, how can any person of faith, of conscience, vote for a bill that puts a million more kids into poverty? … What does it profit a great nation to conquer the world, only to lose its soul? Mr. Speaker, this bill is an abdication of our responsibility and an abandonment of our morality. It is wrong, just plain wrong.”

I stand with Edelman. It's always politics with Bill and Hill. There's no moral fiber in either of them.

[TheLogicalSong]

9. They made life tough for me as a child.

We were a single-minimum-wage-income family living in subsidized housing and my mother was denied welfare benefits.

The case worker told her that if she was a smoker, she could get some help, but was denied because she didn't meet the other criteria put into place with the inhumane welfare reform bill.

[Laughing Mirror]

10. It was necessary to pass those laws

to pull you out of poverty, don't you realize? That's what they tried to make everybody believe. As if your life wasn't hard enough as it was, now it must become desperate, impossible. That will teach you, the law says.

It is hard for me to believe anybody who had anything to do with that welfare reform could call themselves caring.

[Mufaddal]

11. Michael Moore covered this a few times

At least once in Bowling for Columbine, but I feel like I remember him going after it on The Awful Truth or TV Nation as well. In particular, I remember a segment of him bringing a group of women to clean city hall, or something to that effect. Was that in Bowling or something else? Anywhere, there's this.

[Cobalt Violet]

12. those where horrible, horrible times.

Sorry you had to endure that. Many people just don't get that there were real lives ruined by this.

[appalachiablue]

13. K & R What a horror. Thanks for the post.

[kgnu_fan]

14. K&R