Do Republicans realize they’ve just called for the repeal of welfare reform?

From Patheos, courtesy of Eschaton:

The “welfare reform” passed during the Clinton administration was based on the idea that welfare recipients would be required to work.

Welfare reform was billed as the end of the free ride for all those lazy moms sitting at home doing nothing except raising their kids and cashing their AFDC checks. The new law replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with TANF — Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. And TANF meant those lazy moms were going to have to earn that assistance.

Those of us who objected to this new law at the time argued that, actually, those moms already were doing work — they were raising their kids. This objection got slapped down by, among others, the Republican Party, which insisted at the time that raising kids wasn’t real work and didn’t count.

And

One or the other. The Republican Party cannot say “Moms Do Work” and “Mom’s Work Doesn’t Count” at the same time.

More here.

Of course, this is about the bizarre Hilary Rosen flap, a Democratic operative calling out Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's wife Ann on her status as campaign go-to gal for women's issues: Ann Romney says women are concerned with jobs, and aren't worried about GOP sabre-rattling over women's vaginas; Rosen says Romney has no ground to stand on because she's never worked a day in her life.

"Ha!" say the Republicans, "we've got you now! Being a mother is work!" Repeat ad nauseam.

Without even considering the fact that the Romneys have always been rich, always, and that motherhood for Ann has necessarily included nannies and other domestic servants, making her "work" much easier than it is for most American women, this incident is definitely in the running for the foulest moment of GOP hypocrisy I can recall. I mean, really? Republicans are the defenders of stay-at-home moms? Yeah, right.

Think back to the 70s, when women started entering the work force in large numbers. This only kind of coincided with the women's movement: the reality is that women entered the work force because their husbands' incomes started shrinking rapidly, and this did nothing but speed up once the Republicans took and held the White House for the next twelve years. That is, GOP leadership essentially pushed women out of the home, making the concept of "housewife" one that is either a luxury or a status accompanied by severe economic hardship. And then, as the excerpt above observes, they went after the single mothers receiving government assistance.

Republicans have never given a shit about mothers, except as some sort of religious icon to be praised but not supported in any real way. And now they think they're somehow turning the tables on the Democrats. Fuckers.

This Democratic operative, Rosen, probably should have chosen her words better, but this isn't really her fault. I mean, like I said, she's essentially right about Ann Romney. No, this is about brazen Republican lies. The kind about which they get really pissed off when others call them on their bullshit. But, frankly, I don't think they're going to pull this one off. It's like the GOP suddenly deciding to defend the gay pornographers or something. Just too big of a stench.

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