Santorum compares Obama to Mussolini over welfare change

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Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) on Tuesday railed against President Barack Obama because his administration planned to give states the ability to alter a key welfare program.

“When you look at this President going out and saying, ‘I’m gonna change the law on welfare. I’m gonna change the work requirement,’” he told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “Something we fought for, President Clinton signed, this was a huge transformation on the welfare rolls, dramatic reductions, increase in employment, reductions in poverty, probably the single greatest accomplishment social-welfare-wise of the last 20 years, and President Obama gets up and says, ‘Nope, I’m gonna change the law by speaking.’ This sounds like a two-bit dictator, not a president of the United States. You do not change the law by speaking.”

Santorum advised Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to talk about Obama’s “imperial presidency.” He noted that his grandfather fled Il Duce, the title used by the founder of fascism, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

“We do not need another person who thinks they can simply get up, give a speech, change the law and then dare Congress,” Santorum continued.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week encouraged states to experiment with better ways to administer the program, informing officials that the department was willing to grant waivers to states that wished to opt-out of provisions of the the Temporary Assistant for Needy Families (TANF) law, including the work-requirement provision.

Two states with Republican governors, Utah and Nevada, have already asked for waivers. California, Connecticut, and Minnesota have also asked about waivers, according to the HHS.

Republicans in Congress have claimed the waivers are illegal because they circumvent the legislative branch.

Watch video, courtesy of ABC News, below: