In Romney's Campaign, Nothing is Real, and that's just what Tea Party voters want!

Obama’s putting everybody on the taxpayer dole, passing food stamps out to everyone, and telling people they'll never have to work again. Life is good.

That might be crazy public policy, but that’s what tea party voters already think, so Romney’s bizarre allegations against Obama appeals to the rampant paranoia.

The truth is, Obama’s welfare policy change is at the request of two Republican governors.

TPM: Mitt Romney’(s) accusations that President Obama is trying to “gut” the (welfare to work) program by waiving its work requirements don’t jibe with the administration’s actual work guidelines. They also sidestep the fact that Romney himself supported such changes … “President Obama, in just the last few days, has tried to reverse that accomplishment, by taking the work requirement out of welfare. That is wrong. If I’m president I’ll put work back in welfare.” His new campaign ad asserts that “Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job — they just send you your welfare check.”

The truth?

The Department of Health and Human Services (made the changes) … in response to requests from at least two Republican governors in Utah and Nevada, who complained paperwork requirements and narrow participation metrics were hampering their ability find recipients work. This had been a complaint from Republican-led states in the past: Romney himself signed a letter with 28 other Republican governors in 2005 requesting Congress grant waivers to allow more flexibility in administering the program.

And the work rules?

“The Obama administration, working with the Republican governors of states like Nevada and Utah, is giving states additional flexibility only if they move more people from welfare to work — not fewer,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement.