The National Review reports:
In criticizing President Obama’s gutting of the work requirements so central to welfare reform, the Romney campaign evoked political history. Lanhee Chen, Romney’s policy director reminded us yesterday that in 1996: “Barack Obama took to the floor of the Illinois State Senate to announce his opposition [to work-based welfare reform].” True, but that’s only the beginning. Let’s have a look at what else Obama was doing that year.Great moments in socialism
In 1996, the year President Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform bill, Obama became a member of a leftist third party called the New Party. The Obama campaign denied this in 2008, and continues to deny it today, although contemporaneous documents now definitively prove it. The core purpose of the New Party was to pull the country to the left of the Clinton Democrats. Opposition to the welfare reform act virtually defined the New Party’s position.
The most important plank in the New Party’s platform was a guaranteed minimum income for all adults, regardless of whether they worked. In 1996, when Obama joined the party and gained its endorsement, candidates had to speak up in favor of the party platform to seal the deal. Obama also knew and had personally discussed the goals of the New Party with the party’s national leader, Joel Rogers, who was preoccupied with the guaranteed minimum income provision.
