President Obama's and GOP challenger Mitt Romney's campaigns released opposing Web ads Wednesday, attacking each other over recent changes to welfare policy.
Romney on Tuesday launched an aggressive new line of attack against Obama, accusing the president of undoing the bipartisan welfare reforms enacted during President Clinton's administration in the mid-1990s.
The Romney campaign video titled, "The Rise And Fall Of Welfare Reform," features Democrats, including former President Clinton, speaking out in support of welfare work requirements and claiming that Obama has been an opponent of the reforms.
“It took years for President Clinton and Republicans in Congress to pass historic welfare reforms — but it only took President Obama an instant to undo the legislation’s historic work requirements. On welfare reform, President Clinton and President Obama couldn’t be further apart. As president, Mitt Romney will restore President Clinton’s reforms and get Americans back to work," said Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul in a statement.
The Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee released a television ad Tuesday that accuses Obama of "quietly gutting" welfare reform.
“Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job,” the ad says. “They just send you your welfare check. And welfare-to-work goes back to being plain old welfare."
The Obama campaign is pushing back against the attacks, and in its new 30-second Web video released Wednesday called Romney's criticisms "untrue and hypocritical."
"See this ad. Mitt Romney claiming the president would end welfare's work requirements. NBC calls it 'dubious' and they're right. It's false," says a narrator in the video.
The Obama campaign pointed to sources rejecting Romney's accusations, and suggested that as governor of Massachusetts the GOP challenger advocated for similar changes.
"[F]ormer President Clinton, the author of welfare reform, called Romney’s comments ‘not true,' especially in light of Romney’s previous support for a policy that would have eliminated time limits for welfare recipients, which would have ended welfare reform as we know it. If we take Mitt Romney at his word today that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, it becomes clear that he lacks the core strength and principles the nation needs in a president," said Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith.
