Romney team releases new version of widely discredited welfare ad

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Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign on Monday released a new advertisement that repeats claims that have been widely been denounced as untrue.

“Since 1996, welfare recipients were required to work. This bipartisan reform successfully reduced welfare rolls. Only July 12, Obama quietly ended the work requirement, gutting welfare reform. One of the most respected newspapers in America called it ‘nuts,’” the ad says. “Mitt Romney will put work back in welfare.”

The newspaper referenced in the ad is the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which on August 15 accused President Barack Obama of gutting welfare reform.

Romney’s latest ad is very similar to another released earlier this month. Romney’s ad claimed the Obama administration had waived the work requirement in the Temporary Assistant for Needy Families (TANF) program.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last month encouraged states to experiment with better ways to administer the TANF program, informing state officials that the department was willing to grant waivers to states that wished to opt-out of provisions of the welfare law.

Romney and other Republicans have claimed that the waivers were an attempt to undermine the welfare program’s work requirement. But PolitiFact rated those claims “Pants on Fire,” noting that the waivers were actually “designed to improve employment outcomes.”

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

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below: