Santorum, Davis Take Welfare Attack On Obama To The Convention

The Romney campaign’s most powerful wedge takes center stage.

Former Republican party presidential candidate Senator Rick Santorum speaks during a pro-life event called ‘Treasure Life’ at the Tampa Aquarium in Tampa, Florida on August 28, 2012. Image by MLADEN ANTONOV / Getty Images

TAMPA — Rick Santorum attacked President Barack Obama for cutting work requirements for those on welfare, repeating a frequent Romney campaign charge.

“President Obama’s policies undermine the traditional family, weaken the education system,” Santorum said. “And this summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare.”

But the Obama campaign quickly pounced on the line, noting it has repeatedly been deemed false by fact checkers.

Republicans are using the welfare attacks to drive a wedge with middle class voters in Ohio and Virginia.

Santorum’s comments on welfare:

We all know there is one key to success that has helped people overcome even the greatest of obstacles - hard work. That’s why work was the centerpiece of the bipartisan welfare reform law.

Requiring work as a condition for receiving welfare succeeded — and not just because the welfare rolls were cut in half — but because employment went way up, poverty went down and dreams were realized.

It’s a sturdy ladder to success that is built with healthy families, education and hard work.

But President Obama’s policies undermine the traditional family, weaken the education system.

And this summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare.

I helped write welfare reform; we made the law crystal clear - no president can waive the work requirement. But as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law.

Former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, the GOP’s highest-profile turncoat, echoed the charge in the speech following Santorum’s.

“Bill Clinton took on his base and made welfare a thing you had to work for; this current crowdguts the welfare work requirement in the dead of night,” he said.