Ryan says Obama undercuts welfare reform law

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says President Barack Obama wants to ease work requirements for welfare recipients even though that claim has been largely debunked by independent fact checkers.

Ryan told donors at a $1.2 million fundraiser in Missouri on Thursday that Obama wants to strip the work requirements from the welfare reform law. Ryan says it showed the president wants to promote dependency on government as a solution to economic woes.

The Obama administration, responding to requests from Republican and Democratic governors, is allowing states to apply for a waiver seeking flexibility in how to administer the welfare work requirement in their states. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has seized on that in recent weeks, saying Obama undercut the welfare reform law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.