Limbaugh: Don't tell 'people on welfare when the election is'

Rush Limbaugh is calling on his listeners to keep the election date a secret from the poorest Americans.

"Ninety-nine days, folks," the conservative radio host announced on Monday. "Ninety-nine days before the election. If you are a welfare recipient, that's just a little more than three checks."

"Maybe we shouldn't remind people," he added after thinking about it. "We shouldn't remind people on welfare when the election is. That may not be something we want to actually do."

Earlier this month, Limbaugh suggested that President Barack Obama was plotting to win reelection with new rules that allow states to apply for waivers to work requirements under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.

The president doesn't "want people off of welfare in this regime" because "those are voters that are getting away," Limbaugh said.

In a July memorandum, Department of Health and Human Services said it was exercising its waiver authority under the law to encourage “states to consider new, more effective ways to meet the goals of TANF, particularly helping parents successfully prepare for, find, and retain employment.”

Within a day, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had accused Obama of wanting to “strip the established work requirements from welfare.”

But George Sheldon, acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, defended the policy as something that had been asked for by both Republican and Democratic state officials.

“Federal rules dictate mind-numbing details about how to run a welfare-to-work program,” Sheldon wrote. “Most States and experts agree that these aren’t helpful. … We need state workers spending less time filling out data reports and more time helping parents find employment.”

Listen to this audio from The Rush Limbaugh Show, broadcast July 30, 2012.

(h/t: Media Matters)