1996-08-01 Clinton backs Republican welfare cuts

1996-08-01 John Carlin Independent.co.uk \Bill Clinton\US welfare system http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/clinton-backs-republican-welfare-cuts-1307630.html Clinton backs Republican welfare cuts Clinton backs Republican welfare cuts  President Bill Clinton provoked uproar on the liberal wing of the Democratic Party yesterday when he announced, in the face of stiff opposition from some of his own White House advisers, that he would sign a Republican welfare Bill which eliminates guarantees of government assistance to America's poorest children.

Republican leaders immediately applauded Mr Clinton's decision to sign the Bill, widely viewed as the most drastic assault on the US welfare system since Franklin Roosevelt introduced his New Deal for the poor and unemployed in the 1930s.

But polls show the Bill is popular among American voters, and critics of Mr Clinton were saying he based yesterday's decision less on the interests of America's most disadvantaged citizens - most of whom do not vote - than on a cynical election-year strategy to eat into the support of Bob Dole, his Republican rival in the 5 November polls.

The Bill, Mr Clinton said yesterday, provides "a historic opportunity to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life". He said that he had pledged on taking office to "end welfare as we know it" and that by signing the Bill now he was seizing the opportunity to live up to that promise and "transform a broken system that traps too many in a cycle of dependence".

&ldquo;President Bill Clinton provoked uproar on the liberal wing of the Democratic Party yesterday when he announced, in the face of stiff opposition from some of his own White House advisers, that he would sign a Republican welfare Bill which eliminates guarantees of government assistance to America's poorest children.&rdquo;   