Romney says Obama favors 'culture of dependency'
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. (AP) - Republican Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of ditching a long-standing work requirement for welfare recipients, accusing him of fostering a "culture of dependency" and backing up the charge with a new television commercial.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the allegations were "blatantly dishonest ... hypocrisy knows no bounds." He added that Romney, while serving as Massachusetts governor, had once petitioned the White House to loosen employment rules for those on welfare.
Former President Bill Clinton joined the fray, saying in a statement Tuesday night that the TV ad's assertion was "not true" and that the ad was misleading.
Romney made his accusation in a relatively rare occurrence in the race for the White House - an appearance before voters outside the small group of battleground states likely to settle the Nov. 6 election.
Illinois and its 20 electoral votes are politically safe territory for Obama in the fall. Romney was there for a fundraiser as well as a stop at a manufacturing company, part of the intense competition between the two candidates to stockpile cash for the stretch run to Election Day.
Romney picked up more than $2 million during his swing through Chicago, and another fundraising evening in West Des Moines, Iowa, gave him at least another $1.8 million.
The president was speaking at two private events, one of them a fundraiser, at a hotel a few blocks from the White House. And after being outraised by Romney in recent months, his campaign announced a fundraising "shoot-around" and dinner in New York on Aug. 22 featuring several professional basketball stars.
In a race as close as this one, the taunts were getting personal.
Romney, interviewed on Fox News, said Obama was "saying things that are not accurate" when it comes to taxes. He referred to a crack the president made on Monday night as "Obama-loney," rhyming it with baloney.
At a fundraiser, Obama called Romney's tax plan Robin Hood in reverse - "Romney Hood" - and repeated his accusation that it would mean tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans while forcing the middle class to pay the IRS as much as $2,000 more a year.
The president wants to extend tax breaks due to expire at all income levels, except above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for a couple. He has made his proposal central to a pitch to middle- and working-class voters as he seeks a second term with unemployment at 8.3 percent.
Romney wants to keep the tax cuts in place at all income levels, and has proposed an additional 20 percent reduction in rates.
Romney's decision to introduce the welfare issue into the campaign seemed aimed at blue-collar, white working-class voters in a weak economy, and suggested that Obama might be gaining ground politically with his position on taxes.
It also marked an attempt to take the gloss off the recent announcement that Clinton will have a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. early next month.
Appearing before hundreds of supporters at a manufacturing plant near Chicago, Obama's hometown, the Republican challenger said bipartisan legislation signed into law by Clinton in 1996 "reformed welfare to encourage people to work. They did not want a culture of dependency to continue to grow in our country," he said of the then-president and Congress, under Republican control at the time.
He said that, just recently, Obama "has tried to reverse that accomplishment by taking the work requirement out of welfare. That is wrong, and If I'm president, I'll put work back in welfare. ...We will end a culture of dependency and restore a culture of good, hard work," he said.
Romney's new ad buttressed the point.
"Under Obama's plan you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you a welfare check, and welfare to work goes back to being plan old welfare," the announcer says in the commercial.
"Mitt Romney will restore the work requirement."
Under the law signed by Clinton and amended a decade later, the federal government does not provide a guaranteed benefit to welfare recipients. Instead, the states receive federal funds and are permitted to establish a variety of programs to benefit the poor. The government imposes a limit on the length of time families can receive aid and requires recipients eventually to go to work.
The Romney campaign circulated material during the day that quoted Obama, then a state senator in Illinois, as saying he "probably would have voted against it" if he had been in Congress.
The Obama administration recently announced plans to issue waivers to states that wanted "to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies and procedures" to improve employment among needy families. It said it was acting after receiving requests from some of the nation's governors, including Republicans in Utah and Nevada. But senior GOP lawmakers attacked the move as an attempt to undermine the welfare-to-work requirements in effect for more than a decade.
In his statement, Clinton said there would be no waiver of time limits, which he called an important feature of the 1996 law, under Obama's plan. "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," Clinton said. "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."
Officials with access to detailed advertising information said it appeared the commercial was airing at heavy levels in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia - states where the race is closest.
Romney was himself targeted with a new ad during the day, this one launched by Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that supports Obama.
It features a former Kansas City steelworker who says his company was taken over in 1993 by a group that included Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Romney.
"When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my health care, and my family lost their health care," he said. His wife became ill, but "I think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance," he says. By the time she went to the hospital, she was diagnosed with cancer and died quickly, he said.
"I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned."
In response, Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney, said Obama's allies "continue to use discredited and dishonest attacks in a contemptible effort to conceal the administration's deplorable economic record."
The timeline for Romney's role at Bain, the plant's closing and the woman's death raises questions about the legitimacy of linking the events.
Romney left Bain Capital in 1999 to lead preparations for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Although he retained his official standing as Bain's founder and chief executive until 2002, his campaign says he didn't have a managerial role. The plant closed in 2001 and the steelworker's wife died in 2006.
As the party conventions neared, Republicans and Democrats were fleshing out the speaking schedules for their gatherings.
Republicans said Romney's most persistent primary rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, would have a turn at the speaker's podium. So, too, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a tea party favorite.
Former President Jimmy Carter will tape a video message to be aired in prime time at the Democratic convention.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the allegations were "blatantly dishonest ... hypocrisy knows no bounds." He added that Romney, while serving as Massachusetts governor, had once petitioned the White House to loosen employment rules for those on welfare.
Former President Bill Clinton joined the fray, saying in a statement Tuesday night that the TV ad's assertion was "not true" and that the ad was misleading.
Romney made his accusation in a relatively rare occurrence in the race for the White House - an appearance before voters outside the small group of battleground states likely to settle the Nov. 6 election.
Illinois and its 20 electoral votes are politically safe territory for Obama in the fall. Romney was there for a fundraiser as well as a stop at a manufacturing company, part of the intense competition between the two candidates to stockpile cash for the stretch run to Election Day.
Romney picked up more than $2 million during his swing through Chicago, and another fundraising evening in West Des Moines, Iowa, gave him at least another $1.8 million.
The president was speaking at two private events, one of them a fundraiser, at a hotel a few blocks from the White House. And after being outraised by Romney in recent months, his campaign announced a fundraising "shoot-around" and dinner in New York on Aug. 22 featuring several professional basketball stars.
In a race as close as this one, the taunts were getting personal.
Romney, interviewed on Fox News, said Obama was "saying things that are not accurate" when it comes to taxes. He referred to a crack the president made on Monday night as "Obama-loney," rhyming it with baloney.
At a fundraiser, Obama called Romney's tax plan Robin Hood in reverse - "Romney Hood" - and repeated his accusation that it would mean tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans while forcing the middle class to pay the IRS as much as $2,000 more a year.
The president wants to extend tax breaks due to expire at all income levels, except above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for a couple. He has made his proposal central to a pitch to middle- and working-class voters as he seeks a second term with unemployment at 8.3 percent.
Romney wants to keep the tax cuts in place at all income levels, and has proposed an additional 20 percent reduction in rates.
Romney's decision to introduce the welfare issue into the campaign seemed aimed at blue-collar, white working-class voters in a weak economy, and suggested that Obama might be gaining ground politically with his position on taxes.
It also marked an attempt to take the gloss off the recent announcement that Clinton will have a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. early next month.
Appearing before hundreds of supporters at a manufacturing plant near Chicago, Obama's hometown, the Republican challenger said bipartisan legislation signed into law by Clinton in 1996 "reformed welfare to encourage people to work. They did not want a culture of dependency to continue to grow in our country," he said of the then-president and Congress, under Republican control at the time.
He said that, just recently, Obama "has tried to reverse that accomplishment by taking the work requirement out of welfare. That is wrong, and If I'm president, I'll put work back in welfare. ...We will end a culture of dependency and restore a culture of good, hard work," he said.
Romney's new ad buttressed the point.
"Under Obama's plan you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you a welfare check, and welfare to work goes back to being plan old welfare," the announcer says in the commercial.
"Mitt Romney will restore the work requirement."
Under the law signed by Clinton and amended a decade later, the federal government does not provide a guaranteed benefit to welfare recipients. Instead, the states receive federal funds and are permitted to establish a variety of programs to benefit the poor. The government imposes a limit on the length of time families can receive aid and requires recipients eventually to go to work.
The Romney campaign circulated material during the day that quoted Obama, then a state senator in Illinois, as saying he "probably would have voted against it" if he had been in Congress.
The Obama administration recently announced plans to issue waivers to states that wanted "to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies and procedures" to improve employment among needy families. It said it was acting after receiving requests from some of the nation's governors, including Republicans in Utah and Nevada. But senior GOP lawmakers attacked the move as an attempt to undermine the welfare-to-work requirements in effect for more than a decade.
In his statement, Clinton said there would be no waiver of time limits, which he called an important feature of the 1996 law, under Obama's plan. "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," Clinton said. "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."
Officials with access to detailed advertising information said it appeared the commercial was airing at heavy levels in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia - states where the race is closest.
Romney was himself targeted with a new ad during the day, this one launched by Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that supports Obama.
It features a former Kansas City steelworker who says his company was taken over in 1993 by a group that included Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Romney.
"When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my health care, and my family lost their health care," he said. His wife became ill, but "I think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance," he says. By the time she went to the hospital, she was diagnosed with cancer and died quickly, he said.
"I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned."
In response, Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney, said Obama's allies "continue to use discredited and dishonest attacks in a contemptible effort to conceal the administration's deplorable economic record."
The timeline for Romney's role at Bain, the plant's closing and the woman's death raises questions about the legitimacy of linking the events.
Romney left Bain Capital in 1999 to lead preparations for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Although he retained his official standing as Bain's founder and chief executive until 2002, his campaign says he didn't have a managerial role. The plant closed in 2001 and the steelworker's wife died in 2006.
As the party conventions neared, Republicans and Democrats were fleshing out the speaking schedules for their gatherings.
Republicans said Romney's most persistent primary rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, would have a turn at the speaker's podium. So, too, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a tea party favorite.
Former President Jimmy Carter will tape a video message to be aired in prime time at the Democratic convention.
JUST IN: Obama to women: Romney would roll back your rights.
Do people really believe that nonsense?
 @Saving Grace Yes, informed voters who follow the candidates know this to be a certainty. As part of a cult that believes women are to be subservient to men, Mitt Romney can clearly not be trusted on any issue that concerns women. As well, current Republican ideology is disdainful of women in general; it views reproductive health for women as "elective and discretionary" only while also not supporting women making their own reproductive choices.Â
 @kennewickman  Ah, the made up "war on women" that you liberals invented to keep peoples' minds off the real issues.
So does Romneyâ¦for the military complex, whose funding he wants to boost by $117 billion. This is for a country thatâs nearly $16 trillion in debt and already spends 41% of the worldâs total for defense spending, more than 6x #2 China and more than countries ranked #2 through 17 combined.
Â
@bricsa Yeah that 16 trillion is mostly the work of Obama
@wynooheeman
There's a chart found over at PBS, kinda old, but easily found with a search under NOW David Bronchacci, military spending. Do it! I did a screen shot of it and have it in my arsenal. It shows military spending by presidents, like, from Carter on....it's a fantastic chart showing a pattern how Democrats dangerously CUT military spending. No mention how body armor factors in to that.Â
 @wynooheeman Too bad reality doesn't agree with you. What is it like to want your magic underwear man to win so bad that you come out here and knowingly lie?
Bottom Line:
Â
1) There is no law that requires presidential candidates (including Romney) to release their tax returns.
2) Romney has released two years of his tax returns.
3) The "request" (demand) by Democrats that Romney release ten years of tax returns has no foundation in law, is excessive, is not a requirement, and does not automatically mean that Romney's refusal means is trying to hide something.
4) The IRS did NOT have any problems with Romney's tax returns. (If they had the Democrats would have made certain you would know about it.)
5) The mainstream media bragged in 2008 about how technologically astute Obama was in how he ran his campaign. Who could forget the praise they heaped upon Obama for his tweets and his facebook page. So, Mr. president I think you will clearly understand what I mean when I say quit phishing!  Don't send out your minions (Harry (Moron) Reid) to try and discredit, without any evidience your opponent. For once in your life face your opponent like a man!  Man-up Mr. president, defend your policies and the direction you want to take this country, run on your record! Afterall, you did it for us, right?
@ByeByeBarry Unlike the the GOP/right wing teabbagers demanding Obama release his birth certificate-even thou he had.
Then again, many on the right are telling Romney to relaese the returns. But I see you live in a cave tuned to FOX all day. Where they too get big bucks to lie and be the official TV station for the republican party-gee I wonder why, because they don't want to pay taxes either.
Â
But, ByeByeBarry, you are a well to do business owner making 250K plus a year, why would you be here defending a man whom may not have paid taxes-might be legal-maybe. Why should the super rich help pay for the defense of our country, our infrastructure, rail lines to move products? I'm sure you ByebyeBarry don't need to pay your share either after all, that tax break you got from Bush while our men and women where fighting 2 wars with shabby equipment. And we had China lend us the money. Yes Obama did all that even before he ran for office. Yea-you call Reid a "moron".
@snoopy84 We somehow know Bush had higher grades then John f'n Kerry.
@snoopy84 I just want Obama's college records released and his apllication to college published and his theis published. why did he have it court ordered sealed?
 @Saving Grace Yeah, maybe you are right, we should probably celebrate Republican illiteracy.Â
 @kennewickman it comes down to pointing out grammatical errors ? Hmmm.
 @wynooheeman Given your inability to properly spell or punctuate a simple sentence, you wouldn't be qualified to read it.Â
 @ByeByeBarry Obama will face Romney soon enough in the debates so I don't think you need to worry about Obama "manning up". If anything, it is Mitt who needs to find a backbone and actually have a policy that he doesn't change based upon whatever he perceives he needs to do to ingratiate himself with the Republicans. While it is true that there is no law requiring that Romney release tax returns, it is good politics to push him to release them. It is also in the interest of the voters to see what kind of man this is when it comes to his potential governance of America. I must say though that I am much enamored with the spectacle of the various ignorant Teabillys out there defending Mitt's hidden returns while demanding Obama's college records, his health records and just about everything else. You guys will probably want a pap smear from Michelle next.Â
 @kennewickmanÂ
 "Mitt who needs to find a backbone and actually have a policy that he doesn't change based upon whatever he perceives he needs to do to ingratiate himself with the Republicans"
Â
LOL! If Mitt doesn't head in the direction then the PEOPLE that elect him will replace him. (see the mid-term election results) That is how it works!Â
Â
Why isn't Obama running on his record instead of casting red herrings? He was going to bring the "new tone" to Washington politics. He was the answer, right? Transparency, remember? The entire healthcare debate was going to be held on C-Span...Remember? Following the passage of the "stimulus" bill, which a majority of Americans opposed Mr. brilliant then went on to pass healthcare legislation, again opposed by the the majority of Americans.
Â
And you libs think the American people have forgotten? The only chance you have to win next Novemeber is if you can convince a majority of Americans that they are actually black.Â
Â
Â
 @wynooheeman Do you have any respect for truth at all? People like you are killing America.
@kennewickman Obama accomplisments, 16 trillion in new debt wasted 800 billion tax dollars. unemployment over 8 percent for 36 months. Yeah that is a record any dip wad would be proud of!
@ByeByeBarry He has been running on his accomplishments, I have seen highlights of many of his current campaign speeches where he does exactly that. Of course, you appear to be cloistered in some FOX info bubble where you believe every thing they spoon feed you. So, here you go, he is running on his record, to say he isn't is just simple and willful sel-imposed ignorance.
this chameleon you call Mitt, doesn't even know who he really is, i can't see how anyone else thinks that they know who he is, but yet, these faithful followers will sight everything else under the sun to mask the fact that they have a problem with someone they believe is not American running "their" country. i.e. "convince a majority of Americans that they are actually black". Wow, please go back to your park and try not to stock up on too many guns, ok...thanks.
Romney accuses Obama of fostering a "culture of dependency"...
And yet Romney is pushing the very culture that demands that workers depend on international corporations that provide lower wages, more hours, fewer benefits and less security...
 @OrcasThunder is it so hard for people to take responsibility for the postions they put themselves in? nobody becomes poor because people made them poor and nobody got rich because somebody made them rich.
 @takingamericaback "nobody becomes poor because people made them poor and nobody got rich because somebody made them rich"
Â
The level of denial in that statement is impressive...pitiful, but impressive...
The stupidity it reflects, not impressive in the slightest.
No wonder you people are so paranoid - you can't see the crocodile biting off your nose because you have fouled the swamp.
Â
People have become poor because their jobs were wiped out due to the recession that started under Bush, they can't find new jobs, and the bank took their home away. How was ANY of that "their fault"?
Â
And children of the rich inherit the wealth of their parents - often without any action of their own beyond being born into a rich family.
Â
On the other hand, your statement totally removes any validity in any argument you make blaming Obama for the problems you are having. Taxes, loss of income, health problems - all your own fault.
 @walkthiswayÂ
You should realize that you are speaking above their cognitive level...
???
 @wynooheeman  @OrcasThunder  @takingamericaback "so all your poor choices are the fault of who?"
What "poor choices" are there in losing your job because some bankers chose to risk money that isn't theirs, and put the bank in peril - causing the recession?
Â
"you could have took risks"
Ignoring the grammatical error in that, what are you talking about?
@OrcasThunder @takingamericaback so all your poor choices are the fault of who? you chose to be leach on the blood of the tax payer. you could have took risks but you want nanny state to take care of you.
btw just curious, who are you "taking america back", other americans? people who dont' look and act like you, people who dont believe in the same god you do? I met a lady with the same slogan, i asked what it means to her, she said you "i stand for the real americans (white christian), you take the foreigners, they're not real americans, because their loyalty will always be with their homeland". I asked, how bout minorities born here, she replies "all minorities". So "taking america back" is not a very friendly slogan to certain Americans, but it makes sense from a truly twisted, fearful, intolerate, entitlement, kind of thinking from a certain minority faction of the majority race. So they are ready to put "anyone but him" in office, including this chameleon Mitt. It has become more evident than ever, probably because there is someone not like them in office, running "their" country.
@wynooheeman - hmm, where have i heard this before..your regurgitation of this general blanket comment about governent is not worth commenting on, but i will say that you probably rely on the government more than you think, unless it is something regarding illiegal activities you might be involved with, in that case, you certainly would want the govt out of your business right.  " We kicked the @$$"S of any one who ticked us off!" Aggressive, perhaps because you think you are carrying a bigger gun? No stereotype here, eh. Pretty sure this is not the typical American attitude, but it might be the attitude of that shooter recently.
@OrcasThunder @walkthisway How about the America that you rise or fail by your own choices and the government shrinks and leaves people to their own self reliace. the America that was Great and we kicked the @$$"S of any one who ticked us off!
YES! What's sad and scary, is that these people who think they are "real" Americans are exactly the thing that makes America NOT great. Take Bachman for example, she thinks she's trying to protect America by accusing innocent American officials of being affiliated with Muslim Terrorists, with no evidence at all other than her fears and predjudice. She may not know it, but her actions are far more impacting then she thinks, 1) it ruins a model citizen's reputation professionally and privately, 2) also for someone in her base listening to her saying that under this president that he has allowed terrorist infiltration into the Govt. And if this person is already on the brink with hatred towards certain minority groups, they may just go out and take action on that group. And maybe they can't even discern from one eastern religion vs another, and maybe they attack one thinking that it was the other...
@OrcasThunder Very well said!
 @walkthisway Well said...
You need to understand that tab is trying to get back to an America that in many aspects never existed, but in one way did exist - and was rejected when people realized how twisted it was. The America of hatred for anything and anyone different was a bitter, ugly, sick America - and some of it still remains in the minds of people like tab. It is an America with no soul, no purpose, and no hope. And they want it back because the REAL America terrifies them.
 @takingamericaback Really, in your world no one has ever inherited money that made them rich? No one has ever been driven into bankruptcy because of the unfair practices of another? I thought you guys were all about tort reform because innocent people are ruined by lawyers.Â
 @wynooheeman The world is full of complexities, simplistic people hide in a shell of simplistic thought and are apparently too dimwitted to imagine something outside that simple cocoon. No, YOU never got thin because a fat person ate more food than you but there have been plenty of people on the planet who were starved to death, ask those who survived the Holocaust.  And, some people have been made rich by others, some made poor. Ever hear of WaMu, a bank that went bankrupt and stole the life savings of honest folks across America. It wasn't some simple change in the market that left WaMu antiquated and no longer useful, it was the unbridled greed and arrogant Romney-esque executives. Yeah, social Darwinism exists, it is the worst of humanity. Every now and then the people get a bit fed up with it and take back control. Maybe sooner than later.Â
@kennewickman @takingamericaback I never got thin because a fat person ate more food then me. same with being rich or poor. It is what you do. the choices you make deside what you become. Social darwinism the survival of the fittest.
romney is a toad, a murderous, lying, corporate-suck up toad. Where are the tax returns romney? Let me guess, there aren't any! Â
Â
The man is a viper who has no use for any person making less than a million a year...anyone who thinks he will do anything for the middle class, women, the elderly, kids, single mothers, the homeless, unemployed, or mentally ill are seriously mistaken. Â This man is a one-person death panel. Make no mistake. Â His entire life is a lie - his own father would be ashamed of him, but then his father had some integrity. romney has none, zip, zero.
@comdown you got proof? and gee 90 percent of obama cabinet is gulty of tax evaion.
 @comdown Maybe Obama should release those Fast and Furious documents that he's using his power to hide. That whole scandal lead to hundreds of people being killed...and Obama just makes it look like he's trying to cover something up by not releasing those documents. Funny how you libs see something like that as a "distraction from the real issues"...but make such a huge deal about Romney's tax returns.
 @glamdring2012 Oh, you mean that stupid program started under GWB?
It doesnt matter about these talking points, it would just be a back and forth kinda thing. But I think you and I know if Mitt does win, he would not be the one making decisions. It would be more or less a puppet govt thing with the certain faction of the Right making decisions. exhibit A - Boehner... The question really is: is the Far Right Ideology good for America, good for "all" Americans, not just the majority.
 @walkthisway I have done a lot of reading up on Romney. I agree, he has changed his stance on different issues (not like Obama hasn't)...but he has a good track record when it comes to economics, which is what this country really needs right now. He is a money maker, not a money squanderer like our current president. Romney understands how to be financially responsible....Obama doesn't. Obama thinks the solution to everything is to barrow more money we don't have, and to spend, spend, spend. I'm not going to deny that Romney could turn out to be a failure, and he could go back on his promises after being elected...but I'd rather take my chances with him than to vote for someone who has already gone back on his promises and has already proven to be a failure.
@glamdring2012, i got a question for you, your candidate Mitt is such a chameleon, he doesn't even know who he is. Do you really know who this guy is and what he really believes?
 @kennewickman  Operation Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious are both gun running projects...but they are not the same thing. Wide Receiver was shut down in 2007 because it was seen as a failure. Fast and Furious was started under Obama in 2009. Just because they are both gun running projects does not make them the exact same program. Why you can't understand that they are not the same...I do not know. I guess you just don't want to understand.
@glamdring2012 Sorry but it is you who needs to do some research. This ill-conceived gun walking nonsense began back in 2006 and was all part of an umbrella program known as Project Gunrunner. Of course, since you can't swiftboat Obama, I guess this will have to do.
 @kennewickman The program under Bush was "Operation Wide Receiver", and it was ended long before Obama got into office. Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious are similar, but they are not the same thing. Wide Receiver was shut down in 2007. Fast and Furious was started in 2009 under Obama. Do some actual research next time before you start making silly claims.
 @comdown how is he lieing? he is killing our economy, installing a government dependancy healthcare system, has passed out more food stamps then any president in government history, wants to open the borders for any illegals to come into this country and not backing state rights to protect there borders, and yes im talking about arizona even though there law mirrors what the federal law is. i would like romney to show his tax returns and for obama to show his college transcripts. plus if romney wasnot paying taxes all this time dont you think the irs would have caught him?Â
@takingamericaback I actually worry more about people who can't properly punctuate a sentence being allowed to vote.
 @kennewickmanÂ
OH OH OH... I GOT IT!!!!
new amendment.
You have to fill out your ballot in complete sentences. You are allowed one grammar/misspelled word, punctuation mistake before your ballot is burned, and you are escorted to a FEMA concentration camp.
Â
You know..
"I wish to noninate mitt Romney for pressidint"Â
Â
Â
 @takingamericaback Gosh, I wonder if the way Republican deregulation of the banking industry had anything to do with driving an economy into such meltdown that it can't be fixed in as little as 4 years? Â
 @takingamericaback killing our economy?Â
Â
is this like all the guns he is supposedly going to seize or freedoms he is going to abolish?
 @comdown Apparantly the conservatives do not think he needs to release his tax returns until Obama releases college trasncript (something almost no other presidential candidate has volunteered. They also want Obama to release a urine sample to prove he is not a muslim.Â
Â
As far as the middle class goes, well most conservatives do not look at themselves as "middle class." Only liberals are middle class. Conservatives are all temporarily inconvenienced millionaires. If a conservative is not rich it is because they have not prayed hard enough and their bosses do not have enough tax cuts. Â