Over the last few weeks, I’ve chronicled the growing attempts of the Obama administration to add as many moochers to the government dole as possible.  This is being done directly: Spanish soap operas to encourage Hispanics to sign up for food stamps.  And indirectly by virtual of our lousy economy: more people went on Social Security disability last month than found a job.  Either way, our entitlement society is growing like a cancer and Obama is only exacerbating its reach.  I told you in 1994 that if the voters ever gave the Democrats control in Washington again the Democrats would immediately move to make as many Americans dependent – or more dependent – on government as possible.  So, the voters put the Democrats in charge, and what do we get over the span of just a few years:

• Government takeover of 17% of the economy and your health care.
• Doubling the number of Americans on food stamps.

And now … expanding welfare:

Last Thursday, with little fanfare or media coverage, the Obama administration managed to change the nature of welfare in this country.  Since the beginning Obama intended to reverse the welfare reforms made by the Republican majority when Clinton was president.  Those reforms freed millions of Americans from their government dependency.  This is not the direction in which Obama wants to travel.

The Obama administration via the Department of Health and Human Services has essentially rewritten the rules established by the welfare reform law of 1996.  The new policy, as per the Obama administration, will no longer require welfare recipients to work in order to maintain their benefits.  The federal rule allows states to opt out of the federal work requirement and replace it with other options such as job training.  The goal: Get more people reliant on the government.  The very memo from Department of Health and Human Services states, “The Secretary will not approve a waiver for an initiative that appears substantially likely to reduce access to assistance or employment for needy families.”  In other words … the point of this waiver is to increase access to welfare, not reduce it.

It’s not even clear whether or not the Obama administration even has the authority to do this.  But hey, that hasn’t stopped them before!  The Heritage Foundation reminds us of the growing list of Obama administration actions that it has taken to circumvent the legislative process.

• Even though the Democrat-controlled Senate rejected the President’s cap-and-trade plan, his Environmental Protection Agency classified carbon dioxide, the compound that sustains vegetative life, as a pollutant so that it could regulate it under the Clean Air Act.
• After the Employee Free Choice Act—designed to bolster labor unions’ dwindling membership rolls—was defeated by Congress, the National Labor Relations Board announced a rule that would implement “snap elections” for union representation, limiting employers’ abilities to make their case to workers and virtually guaranteeing a higher rate of unionization at the expense of workplace democracy.
• After an Internet regulation proposal failed to make it through Congress, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would regulate the Web anyway, even despite a federal court’s ruling that it had no authority to do so.
• Although Congress consistently has barred the Department of Education from getting involved in curriculum matters, the Administration has offered waivers for the No Child Left Behind law in exchange for states adopting national education standards, all without congressional authorization.
• Since it objects to existing federal immigration laws, the Administration has decided to apply those laws selectively and actively prevent the state (like Arizona) from enforcing those laws themselves.
• Rather than push Congress to repeal federal laws against marijuana use, the Department of Justice (DOJ) simply decided it would no longer enforce those laws.
• DOJ also has announced that it would stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act or defending it from legal challenge rather than seeking legislative recourse.

These actions by Obama are actions that you would expect to be taken by a ruler, not a leader.  Well .. that’s exactly what Obama – or his chief advisor – proclaimed him to be in 2009.  It’s too bad more Americans haven’t focused on the words of Valerie Jarrett – the head of Obama’s transition team – days before his inauguration:  “We will be ready to RULE from day one.” 

Well here he is … RULING.  Making the rules.

What rules?  Rules that make people dependent on government.  Dependent voters are Democrat voters. 

Note: Newt Gingrich will be on the program today at 10:10AM to discuss this issue.  Newt says that “Obama’s suspension of workfare requirements is almost certainly illegal, a sign of the jobs failure, and a reminder how liberal [O]bama is.”