Stimulus Bill Eliminates Welfare Caps

Amanda Carpenter | January 30, 2009 9:21 AM

There's no end to the pork and trouble inside President Obama's stimulus bill.

Charlie Hurt of the New York Post discovered language tucked in it to eliminate the caps on welfare money the federal government can send to states.

On page 354 of the bill is language that says: "Out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated such sums as are necessary for payment to the Emergency Fund."

The Emergency Fund was established by welfare law to provide assistance to states. The wildly successful 1996 Welfare Reform Act placed limits on the amount the feds could put into the fund. The language inside the stimulus bill rescinds those limits.

Hurt explains, "this means the only limit on welfare payments would be the Treasury itself."

Got that? Treasury could be come an entire slush fund for the welfare state. That might be taking things to the extreme limit, but would be permitted under the language Democrats drafted.