Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) appeared to agree with an MSNBC host and multiple individual fact-checkers Wednesday that the ads run by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on welfare are false.
Chris Jansing asked Brownback why the GOP was still claiming that President Barack Obama had eliminated the work requirement for welfare.
"I can't speak for why people are making the argument," he said speaking from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, "other than they're pointing out the dependency on the federal government, and the federal government's broke."
Jansing followed up, "But you agree that these claims that the work requirement has been abolished are false?"
"As far as I have seen, but I don’t know all of the basis to it," Brownback said, and then returned to a discussion about the "dependency" on the federal government.
"I do know the basis to this dependency on the government and how big the government is and how big the entitlement state is and how much of a debt we're leaving to our kids," he continued.
Romney maintains that his charge that Obama removed the work requirement from welfare is accurate. The charge stems from a July memo from the Department of Health and Human Services inviting states to apply for waivers "to allow states to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies, and procedures that are designed to improve employment outcomes for needy families." It did not end work requirements.
Sherriene Jones-Sontag, Brownback's communications director, referred The Huffington Post to a letter that the governor sent to HHS.
"As Gov. Brownback said in his letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius earlier this month, he believes the Obama Administration allowing states the ability to opt out of the very work requirements which have proven successful over the past 15 years is alarming," she said.
This post has been updated to include comments from Brownback's communications director.
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