Bernie Sanders Takes on Clinton Welfare Legacy as He Woos Iowa Unions

[n2doc]

Bernie Sanders says both Clintons made a mistake on welfare reform.

In an phone interview Thursday with Bloomberg, the Democratic presidential candidate said that history will not look kindly on the 1996 overhaul of the New Deal anti-poverty program, which then-President Bill Clinton enacted over the objections of many liberal Democrats, including Sanders, who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at the time. Sanders' chief rival for the Democratic nomination, front-runner Hillary Clinton, wrote in her 2003 book, Living History, that she supported the bill, despite some concerns, because she “felt, on balance, that this was a historic opportunity to change a system oriented toward dependence to one that encouraged independence.”

Asked about that position in May, a Clinton campaign spokesperson told Bloomberg she “has a long record fighting for everyday Americans and their families, and she is running to make sure all families are not only able to get ahead, but stay ahead.”

Clinton wrote that she "worked hard to round up votes" for the her husband's legislation, which imposed time limits on welfare benefits and work requirements on beneficiaries.

In his own book in 1997, Sanders called the bill “the grand slam of scapegoating legislation…" Now a U.S. senator from Vermont, he doubled down on that assessment in his interview with Bloomberg. "I think that history will suggest that that legislation has not worked terribly well," he said, arguing that too many politicians would rather target the poor than poverty.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-06/bernie-sanders-takes-on-clinton-welfare-legacy-as-he-woos-iowa-unions

[SoapBox]

1. The more I find out about her...

The more I REALLY don't like her.

[fbc]

2. She is bad

and has done very bad things to people.

[AverageGuy]

3. imposed time limits on welfare benefits and work requirements on beneficiaries.

What is wrong with that? Please explain. Oh by the way I support Sanders with my heart, but Hillary with my head, since she is more electable because of things like this.

[aspirant]

4. When does she impose

time limits on corporate welfare

[AverageGuy]

7. At no time should there be corporate welfare

[aspirant]

14. So is Hillary for

abolishing corporate welfare?

[AverageGuy]

15. I would hope so, but I doubt it

[daybranch]

5. what does time have to do with need?

I do not for one minute think you support Bernie with your heart. You are just trying to chant Hillary is inevitable and hope we bow to your triangulating candidate.
I agree that she can get democrats to follow her blindly she can implement many cuts to the social safety net. Last night I listened to an uniformed democrat on social security disability explaining that some young children and spouses of the deceased did not need social security benefits. He like republicans want to believe social security is welfare rather than earned benefits paid for by contributions of workers and employers. If you want to say Hillary will get votes of those who view much of society as unworthy or as Reagan's people labelled them welfare queens, I agree you are right. But I totally dispute that moving legislation to the right as Clinton always did is in itself a strategy that served pour people.
By the way, Hillary is not electable because her views do not coincide with those of the people. She will be polished, she will stand tall and be attractive, and she will have a great grasps of facts. Unfortunately the genie is already out of the bottle and the empress has no clothes. With 2 debates , she will have defined herself by her positions. By that time, both the more polished O'Malley or the candidate seen as most authentic, will gain significantly more support. And heaven help her if Biden enters the fray. He is an attack dog and her weaknesses will be vigorously exploited , draining even establishment democrats. Hint- Joe ain't considering a run because he considers her inevitable.

[AverageGuy]

11. I think this is a Republican year, neither she nor J. Bush will be nominated

by their parties. The character issue will destroy her. After that, Biden will be the establishment candidate who will not have a big PoC turnout like Obama or a heavy turnout by women like Hillary. I love single payer, and many of the policies of Sanders, but low information voters think a Socialist and Communist are the same thing. Many young voters will no longer have a cause, so they will vote in their normal numbers.

If you watched the Debate, you saw that Jeb is a bad candidate, style-wise. Because of Trump the Republican convention will be deadlocked, and Mitt will ride to the rescue, and be their compromise nominee. He will win the election.

As an officer of a Blue Collar, private industry Union, I know my members do not like welfare without a time limit or work requirement. They do support a government make-work program, like a CCC, instead of welfare. They do not consider Unemployment Insurance to be Welfare.

[Stargazer99]

6. When you cant find a decent paying job

because they are shipped out of the US for cheaper wages, yes squeezing those with little or no power to protect themselves is a crime. Leaving mothers and children homeless and hungry because of time limits is plain nasty. You evidently believe the conservative whine about lazy welfare people who don't want to work....you must have suckered for it or have no comprehension of how difficult the lower classes have it. Get some real life education about poverty, low-income: talk to the people not just believe what someone wants you to believe. When life becomes hard you finally understand the brutality this country has toward low income people. And don't tell me this country is not brutal...my adult daughter died because she was $3 over the medicade limit. If you don't have enough money to see a doctor...die, don't bother those more worthy..right?
Do I sound bitter? Even though she was WORKING for minimum wage she still had to die...you have no idea how I hate this country now.

[historylovr]

17. I'm so sorry for the loss of your daughter, Stargazer.

And I agree with everything you said.

[questionseverything]

9. cash assistance or welfare benefits are about 400 bucks a month

in illinois beneficiaries that can not get a medical excuse are required to "volunteer" 30 hours a week or 120 hours a month...so that works out to less than 4 bucks an hour.....slave wages,not enough to live on but takes up enough time a person can not explore other options

[sabrina 1]

20. The legislation was excellent for providing cheap labor for Corporations, under the guise

of, as Hillary stated 'ending dependency and moving towards self sufficiency' or words to that Republican effect.

[questionseverything]

21. some of the places that are set up for "volunteers" are doing good work

but some are corps owned by repubs kind of disguised as social agencies

another thing i have a huge problem with from that "reform" bill is...if a young person makes a mistake.like getting their electricity shut off they are forever bared from public housing

[jtuck004]

12. When there is no work, do you suggest they die? What's so fucking right about it? n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Because people become homeless or worse

Germany, for example, has no such limits, and it works just fine.

This was just savagery.

[n2doc]

22. Just like it took a repub to go to China

It took a democrat to enact Reagan's wet dream.

[Ed Suspicious]

26. So the time limit runs out and the woman doesn't have a job. Then what?

Kick her to the curb. Then make it illegal to sleep on the curb. People suffering hard times were not and are not the enemy the 1990s pukes and blue dogs made them out to be.

It's all welfare queens and Cadillacs as far as those groups go.

[jwirr]

10. Many do not know what the Clinton welfare reform did. First of all it did not have any exceptions

to the get a job rule. They also did not consider lack of jobs available. My state made their own exceptions: rural recipients without transportation to and from work, person's unable to get a job because employers would not hire them (I remember a very obese woman could not get a job), persons who did not have the mental ability to work other than in a sheltered workshop and were also not able to qualify for work there, and finally people like me.

I had worked since 1958 taking total care of my daughter who was severely disabled - thanks to my state I was one of the exceptions and for very good reason. The difference between the cost of keeping me at home caring for her or placing her in an institution was huge. And there were others like me.

Ironically my severely disabled daughter was not an exempt. To be able to receive a place at the day center/sheltered workshop she had to work. So for years the taxpayer hired a PCA to take her hand an place it on a button and push it down. She never did it by herself. Finally about 3 years ago the state changed their rules so that people like my daughter can now attend the center even if they do not work.

None of us were able to get ahead let alone stay ahead. We just still get to be the scapegoats for bad economic policies.

I hope Bernie gets a chance to do it his way. It no longer effects me - I'm too old but there are still plenty of people like the ones I describe.

[blackspade]

16. Reading this pisses me off every time:

"

...Hillary Clinton, wrote in her 2003 book, Living History, that she supported the bill, despite some concerns, because she “felt, on balance, that this was a historic opportunity to change a system oriented toward dependence to one that encouraged independence.”

This is such a myopic condescending quote.

[historylovr]

18. +1

[sabrina 1]

19. This will be a big issue in this campaign. Wrote about it a couple of weeks ago

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251466903

Got a lot of pushback from a few Hillary supporters, claiming we should not use what her husband did against her.

Problem is she BOASTED for YEARs, in her book, in interviews etc, about how much influence she had in getting the votes to pass it.

Fell on deaf ears, but it won't on voters especially on those who became victims of that legislation.

[n8dogg83]

23. The so called 'welfare reform' has been devastating to black communities....

As a black man, I can understand why a lot of black people like and respect the Clintons, even though their policies have cause enormous harm to black communities. He was very charismatic and charming. I think Bernie Sander's best chance of addressing the issue of welfare spending in America is to lay out the fact that raising the minimum wage to a living wage will go a long way towards drastically reducing the need for food stamps, WIC, TANF, SNAP, etc. It would also help end the practice of taxpayers subsidizing the low wages of companies like Walmart, who pay their employees so little that many of them need public assistance to make ends meet.

[dreamnightwind]

24. K & R, this is important - eom

[MisterP]

25. "but why isn't he talking about the problems with welfare reform?!!!11"

--signed, a supporter of the CCA candidate