As Senator, Too: Hillary Backed Bush's Decision to Impose Harsh New Changes to Welfare Program

[amborin]

With a Step Right, Senator Clinton Agitates the Left

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is drawing fire from her traditional liberal allies as a result of the position she has staked out in the debate over revamping the nation's welfare laws.

Scores of protesters displayed their anger outside her house here in the Embassy Row neighborhood today, unhappy with her decision to back President Bush's drive to enact new work requirements that they say will ultimately harm welfare recipients.

''Senator Clinton needs to understand that the stakes in this debate are very high and that she will be held accountable for her actions,'' said Deepak Bhargava, the executive director of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, a coalition of advocacy groups representing low-income communities.

Mrs. Clinton, the New York Democrat, has joined a group of moderate and conservative Democratic senators in supporting a bill to increase the work requirement for welfare recipients to 37 hours a week, a significant increase over the current 30 hours.

snip

A longer workweek, her critics argue, would force states to abandon existing job-training and placement programs in favor of unpaid workfare assignments for legions of welfare recipients.

The advocates argue that in places like New York City, workfare has not helped substantial numbers of people move from government dependency into permanent jobs. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg last week proposed shifting some of the city's welfare policies toward providing more job training for those leaving the welfare rolls.

Mr. Bhargava and other advocates for the poor say that perhaps the most troubling implication of Mrs. Clinton's position is the message it sends to other Democrats......

snip

........The other Democratic senators supporting the bill include John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, Zell Miller of Georgia and John B. Breaux of Louisiana.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/22/nyregion/with-a-step-right-senator-clinton-agitates-the-left.html

[AzDar]

1. She's NO Progressive.

[John Poet]

2. It's all in the family

[Matariki]

3. "unpaid workfare assignments" ?

What was that about? Who was benefiting from their unpaid labor?

[Cobalt Violet]

4. she hates poor people.

and we hate her back.