For the past month, Romney-Ryan and crew have been busy accusing President Obama of eliminating welfare-to-work requirements. You can hardly miss the campaign commercials that claim Obama has taken the “work” out of welfare reform. But what we haven’t heard is that state officials in Columbus are getting squeezed by the Obama Administration because Ohio failed to move enough people off public assistance programs into real jobs. The feds contend the state has mismanaged welfare reform since 2007. It is former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration getting blame for not being aggressive with the work component.  Now Ohio is desperately trying to dodge $136.2 million in penalties for failing to shift welfare recipients into the workforce.  Next week, Republican Gov. John Kasich’s administration plans to spend nearly $500,000 on a consultant to help clean up Ohio’s mess. Public Consulting Group Inc. of Boston is in line to get the $499,642 contract. That company says the welfare to work reforms suggested by the Obama Administration in July — the waivers denounced by Romney-Ryan — could actually help get more people off assistance and into jobs.  Here’s language straight from the Kasich Administration’s request to hire the Boston consulting firm: “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), notified Ohio of its failure to meet the performance threshold of fifty percent (all families) and ninety percent (two parent families) for TANF work participation for FFY’s 2007, 2008, and 2009.  These notifications carried potential penalties of $32,758,572 for FFY 2007, $45,050,074 for FFY 2008 and $58,517,487 for FFY 2009. Ohio’s current corrective compliance will require Ohio to completely correct the violation by meeting the work participation threshold during the current FFY 2012. Failure to do so will result in a reduction of Ohio’s State Family Assistance Grant (i.e. TANF) of $32,758,872 …” State officials said the consultant would do analysis to increase work participation rates “in accordance with federal requirements.”  Nobody is suggesting that work participation requirements be ended. The consulting firm says it knows how to help a state win a waiver, which is an alternative way to assist TANF recipients into the workforce. The waivers are what Romney and Ryan have denounced as killing welfare reform. (So far, Ohio hasn’t asked the consultant directly to develop a waiver plan.) But the consultant Ohio is hiring is clear that waivers don’t end work requirements and they could actually help achieve better employment outcomes. “The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) recently issued a challenge for states to develop and test new and innovative strategies that will improve employment outcomes in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program,” the consulting firm says. It sees the change as opening up “thoughtful and innovative approaches that connect TANF participants to jobs in a more effective and less administratively burdensome way.” Again, the consultant being hired by the Republicans at the Statehouse in Columbus doesn’t say Obama is gutting welfare reform. The consultant says, “The waiver authority specifically allows states to test new ways of helping achieve better employment outcomes within the TANF program by offering flexibility on how work requirements and work participation are defined, administered and measured.”