Romney’s Latest Big Lie Called Out by Bill Clinton

“Not true”
Politics • Views: 28,933

President Bill Clinton is calling out Mitt Romney for his latest dishonest attack ad: Bill Clinton Slams Romney ‘Misleading’ Welfare Ad.

“Governor Romney released an ad today alleging that the Obama administration had weakened the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That is not true.

 “The act emerged after years of experiments at the state level, including my work as Governor of Arkansas beginning in 1980.  When I became President, I granted waivers from the old law to 44 states to implement welfare to work strategies before welfare reform passed. 

 “After the law was enacted, every state was required to design a plan to move people into the workforce, along with more funds to help pay for training, childcare and transportation. As a result, millions of people moved from welfare to work.

 “The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment.  The Administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach.  The welfare time limits, another important feature of the 1996 act will not be waived. 

 “The Romney ad is especially disappointing because, as governor of Massachusetts, he requested changes in the welfare reform laws that could have eliminated time limits altogether.  We need a bipartisan consensus to continue to help people move from welfare to work even during these hard times, not more misleading campaign ads.”

Jump to bottom

25 comments
1 makeitstop  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:54:45pm

Pwned.

2 Bulworth  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:54:51pm

In a normal political environment this would be regarded as an embarassing, total smackdown.

3 erik_t  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:54:55pm

Bill, of all people, I'd expect you to know the power of a few short and simple words.

Romney's claim isn't 'not true', or 'especially disappointing'. It's a lie. Call it a lie, because Romney is a liar. His own fucking pen signed the request for this measure. I've seen the pixels.

Better than nothing, I suppose.

4 Feline Fearless Leader  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:57:16pm

How soon until Romney declares he retroactively ended his term as Mass. governor earlier than previously believed so that he can disclaim any actions he took while in the office?
/

5 erik_t  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:57:28pm

re: #2 Bulworth

In a normal political environment this would be regarded as an embarassing, total smackdown.

Romneybot is incapable of hu-man emotions such as embarrassment.


But seriously, Mitt Romney is incapable of human emotions such as embarrassment.

6 Gus  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:58:34pm

re: #5 erik_t

Romneybot is incapable of hu-man emotions such as embarrassment.

But seriously, Mitt Romney is incapable of human emotions such as embarrassment.

I have an idea that might help Romney. Maybe he should just paint himself blue. He can continue talking like a robot.

7 Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:59:38pm

Slowly but surely I've seen more and more prominent people call out Romney as an out and out liar. I hope it continues and that the media will finally call him and his campaign out on it all. He is relying on a press that usually just prints everything each side says with no checking and, again, ignoring the fact that the internet is one giant wayback machine. McCain did the same thing in 08.

8 Feline Fearless Leader  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:02:01pm

re: #7 Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance

Slowly but surely I've seen more and more prominent people call out Romney as an out and out liar. I hope it continues and that the media will finally call him and his campaign out on it all. He is relying on a press that usually just prints everything each side says with no checking and, again, ignoring the fact that the internet is one giant wayback machine. McCain did the same thing in 08.

The media companies are too chicken to call one of the major political parties, or at least the GOP, on the continuing series of lies and out of context claims. Fear of losing access.

I think this is one reason the criticism from the British press caught Romney by surprise. No hold over them, so they are much more willing to act like we expect journalists to act and call out lies and misdirection when they see it.

9 Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:03:19pm

re: #8 Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste

From what I've read the press hasn't had any real access to Romney anyway so they aren't too worried about losing said access at this point.

10 Sol Berdinowitz  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:04:54pm

re: #7 Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance

Slowly but surely I've seen more and more prominent people call out Romney as an out and out liar.

Does not count if it is a Democrat and any Republican who does so becomes a pariah and a RINO.

11 Political Atheist  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:06:55pm

re: #3 erik_t

Bill, of all people, I'd expect you to know the power of a few short and simple words.

Romney's claim isn't 'not true', or 'especially disappointing'. It's a lie. Call it a lie, because Romney is a liar. His own fucking pen signed the request for this measure. I've seen the pixels.

Better than nothing, I suppose.

Bill would undermine his point if he said 'lie'. His history "I never had sex with that woman" leaves him not quite the best person to call out a lie as a lie. I think he played it just right as measured by effectiveness.

12 Kragar  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:16:59pm

Bryan Fischer says there is an obligation to God to commit felonies

For years now, we have been covering the case of Lisa Miller, a former lesbian who found Christ thanks to Jerry Falwell's church and then sought to prevent her former partner from having any sort of visitation with the couple's daughter. After repeated violations of court orders regarding visitation arrangements, Miller was ordered to hand over custody of her daughter, at which points she kidnapped her and fled the country.

Ever since, the case has become a rallying point for anti-gay Religious Right activists and today a trial got underway for a man accused of helping Miller and her daughter flee to South America, prompting Bryan Fischer to come to Miller's defense by declaring that this kidnapping was entirely justified because the little girl was being sexually abused by Miller's former partner and so Miller had a responsibility "to obey God rather than man" and had no choice but to kidnap her daughter and run:

13 HappyWarrior  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:19:23pm

re: #12 Kragar

Bryan Fischer says there is an obligation to God to commit felonies

The fact that there's controversy over this case- a clear cut kidnapping is really sad. If Miller wanted to leave her partner and become a born again Christian, that's fine. But she had no right to kidnap her daughter and it's even more disgusting that this is being condoned. All in the name of anti gay activism. These people disgust me.

14 HappyWarrior  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:20:03pm

Hell, the bill's original sponsor a Republican at that is saying Romney is full of shit. But will we hear that from the media? Chances are no.

15 Sol Berdinowitz  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:21:21pm

re: #12 Kragar

In the end, we all have to act according to our conscience when it comes to choosing to obey or disobey a law. But we should be willing to face the civic consequences of obeying our conscience over law and be prepared to face the consequences.

Thoreau was fully aware of the consequences of not paying a poll tax and did not think that he had a right not to be arrested, he simply saw that as part of his civil disobedience.

16 Stanghazi  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:23:15pm
17 jaunte  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:24:27pm

Sister Simone Campbell:

"Recent advertisements and statements from the campaign of Governor Romney demonize families in poverty and reflect woeful ignorance about the challenges faced by tens of millions of American families in these tough economic times. We are all God's children and equal in God's eyes. Efforts to divide us by class or score political points at the expense of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters reveal the worst side of our country's politics."
[Link: maddowblog.msnbc.com...]

18 dragonath  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:28:56pm

re: #16 Stanley Sea

From that article:

Romney has had a close, long-standing, personal and business connection with Marriott International and its founders. He served as a member of the Marriott board of directors for many years. From 1993 to 1998, Romney was the head of the audit committee of the Marriott board.
During that period, Marriott engaged in a series of complex and high-profile maneuvers, including "Son of Boss," a notoriously abusive prepackaged tax shelter that investment banks and accounting firms marketed to corporations such as Marriott. In this respect, Marriott was in the vanguard of a then-emerging corporate tax shelter bubble that substantially undermined the entire corporate tax system.

But hey, we can trust Romney on his income taxes. Yep.

19 allegro  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 1:32:09pm

re: #18 Fred Galt

From that article:

But hey, we can trust Romney on his income taxes. Yep.

According to him, ripping off the American people is what qualifies him to be President. In fact, if he hadn't paid as little as possible no matter what had to be done to do that, he said he shouldn't be running. At least that last part I agree with.

20 jaunte  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 2:09:13pm
21 Mentis Fugit  Wed, Aug 8, 2012 2:43:12pm

re: #12 Kragar

Bryan Fischer says there is an obligation to God to commit felonies

Ever since, the case has become a rallying point for anti-gay Religious Right activists and today a trial got underway for a man accused of helping Miller and her daughter flee to South America, prompting Bryan Fischer to come to Miller's defense by declaring that this kidnapping was entirely justified because the little girl was being sexually abused by Miller's former partner and so Miller had a responsibility "to obey God rather than man" and had no choice but to kidnap her daughter and run:

How is that not legally actionable slander?

[Edit: I see erik_t has already picked up on that in the new thread.]

[Edit Edit: Oh yeah - "freemus peach"]

22 Charles Johnson  Fri, Aug 10, 2012 12:25:04pm
23 Charles Johnson  Fri, Aug 10, 2012 12:25:37pm

Testing...

24 Charles Johnson  Fri, Aug 10, 2012 12:36:02pm
25 Charles Johnson  Fri, Aug 10, 2012 2:09:12pm

This article has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh