This month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the policy. “The program has nearly tripled in size from $800 million in 2009 to $2.2 billion per year in 2012,” Republicans on the committee wrote in March. “American taxpayers — and we as their elected representatives — need to know how much of this growth is because of waste, fraud and abuse.”

Lifeline began during the Reagan administration, and was expanded during George W. Bush's presidency to include cellphone service. It's funded by phone bill fees that most people pay -- not, as some conspiracy theorists believe, by taxes. As the Washington Post reports:

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Jon Stewart has a field day:

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And yet, despite its dubious origins, the party's new approach is a striking statement regarding the political power — and numbers — of lower-income people in this country: Rather than dismiss, slur or divide poorer Americans (as in prior elections), Republicans have now made the political calculation that they've no choice but to talk directly to them and win their votes.

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When the federal law was passed, House Republicans initially wanted to let states have all 7.5 million people collecting unemployment compensation pee in a cup. A compromise was reached, which authorizes states to test applicants for benefits in two circumstances: if they were fired for using drugs, or if the only occupation they’re suited for is one the Department of Labor lists as commonly requiring drug testing. Which jobs the department might include in the provision is not yet determined (Democrats say a small number of professions, Republicans say most), but in the meantime GOP state legislators are pushing forward with drug-testing proposals.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has asked lawmakers to push through legislation requiring not only unemployment beneficiaries to be drug tested, but also individuals applying for food stamps -- a particularly draconian move on the governor's part, especially since in the few states where where drug testing of welfare beneficiaries has been attempted, like Florida, there has been no evidence of reduced drug use.

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As Think Progress noted, "Despite the fact that low-income women who give birth to children would logically need increased assistance to care for their larger family, Pennsylvania lawmakers ... don’t want their state’s welfare program to provide additional benefits for that newborn." However, if a woman can prove -- and prove she must -- that a child was conceived through rape, then her benefits would not be cut. TP cites the bill directly:

Elimination of benefits ... shall not apply to any child conceived as a result of rape or incest if the department: (1) receives a non-notarized, signed statement from the pregnant woman stating that she was a victim of rape or incest, as the case may be, and that she reported the crime, including the identity of the offender, if known, to a law enforcement agency having the requisite jurisdiction.

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This is the apparently conclusion of a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (the same organization that recently said that Obama's supposed "welfare reform gutting" was totally legal!), though in fact it is a claim made by Senate Republicans who are abusing the nonpartisan research of the CRS. Here's the story in the Weekly Standard, complete with charts from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee. Here's the story in the Daily Caller, which is more upfront about all the material coming from Senate Republicans and not from the CRS. And here's a Weekly Standard follow-up with some new charts.

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In a video posted on the Drudge Report, a black woman in Cleveland says that people should vote for Obama because he gave free phones to minorities and people on food stamps or other welfare benefits.

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In the profile, Lemann observes: "Just about the only thing in life that Mitt Romney is obviously not very good at is the public aspect of running for office. During his four campaigns for office--U.S. senator, in 1994; governor, in 2002; President, in 2008 and 2012-- he must have undergone endless hours of training and practice, but the magic just isn't there." Except, that is, in smaller groups: "He was direct and pleasant and engaged. His voice sounded husky, rather than flat. His gestures seemed spontaneous, not staged."

Here are some key qu0tes from the interview:

On his father:

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"We've only owned our home for the last four years," Lenore Romney says. "He was a refugee from Mexico. He was on relief - welfare relief - for the first years of his life. but this great country gave him opportunities."

Watch:

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But coming from a presidential candidate of one of the major parties, such remarks are stunning. Moreover, Romney later claimed he stood by them. He insulted half the American people; at least the people who spoke to me were talking about perhaps only one quarter of them! Romney also used the once-ubiquitous claim by conservatives that only half of Americans pay income tax.

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"That’s not the way I view the world. As someone who grew up in tough circumstances, I know that being on public assistance is not a spot that anyone wants to be in. Too many people today who want to work are being forced into public assistance for lack of jobs," Brown told The Hill.

Update II: Rush Limbaugh says this could be a "golden opportunity" for Mitt Romney.

And that "a lot of people have been saying this kind of thing."

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"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney said at a private fundraiser earlier this year. "All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what … These are people who pay no income tax."

Here's the audio:

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Campaign narratives are basically stories, and stories are etched in context. When Ronald Reagan first introduced the “welfare queen” as a character in American politics, she was dripping with details — 80 different names, 30 addresses and a Cadillac. And she wasn’t from a mostly white city like Seattle. Reagan very deliberately cast her in south side of Chicago. Reagan didn’t have to say “welfare queens” are black. Voters knew just what he meant. Context matters.

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And in case anyone was in danger of missing the racial subtext, Santorum linked Obama's waiving the work requirement (he didn't) to "his refusal to enforce the immigration law." Welfare recipients and illegal immigrants, oh my! Santorum made sure to scare the white working class with the depredation of those non-white slackers and moochers. It's 1972 all over again.

But Santorum moved beyond "blah" people to claim that all of America is caught up in "a nightmare of dependency, with almost half of Americans receiving government assistance." To get to half, Santorum had to be including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps, programs that are overwhelmingly going to white people.

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Now, the Romney campaign is going all in on welfare reform and their accusation that President Obama has dismantled its work provisions, despite the fact that it's not at all true. Rick Santorum will deliver a major speech at the Republican National Convention here today that the Romney campaign has touted, noting that the former senator was an author of the 1996 welfare reform bill signed by Bill Clinton. And at a forum hosted by ABC and Yahoo! yesterday, Romney strategist Ashley O'Connor said a recent ad on welfare was the campaign's "most effective" one yet.

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At 55, Sisco was no spring chicken himself. And having been out of work for a couple of years, he’d had plenty of opportunity to study the job market. I had met him at the welfare offices down the street, where he was attending Job Club, a mandatory seven-week program that aims to move welfare recipients off the dole and into a job. Sisco stood out as a charming, wisecracking presence in the group, impeccably dressed in a fedora, polo shirt and creased pants, a thin stripe of silver beard bisecting his chin. He’d led a varied and complicated life that included stints in the military and in prison and for a time he’d lived in a local park. These days, though, he just wanted a steady job and a working washing machine. He was raising his 3-year-old daughter by himself after saving her from foster care when her mother, a prostitute, lost custody. For the moment, he was surviving on a monthly cash stipend of $490 plus food stamps, a sum that didn’t even cover his rent. Job Club was supposed to give him a fresh start. He’d gotten a new resume out of the program, and learned how to parry the awkward questions that come up in job interviews. Now several weeks in, he had just one question.

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