CHARLOTTE – State House Speaker Thom Tillis said President Barack Obama would dismantle bipartisan reforms to welfare.

At a press conference in Cornelius, Tillis criticized the president for supporting waivers from work requirements for people who receive government assistance.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has made the issue part of his campaign message this week.

Supporters said scrapping the welfare-to-work program is a bad idea.

“We think that it represents another threat to going away from a work ethic to a dependency ethic in the United States. We think it's very dangerous. We don't think its helpful in terms of encouraging messages about working hard, getting back to work," Tillis said.

Former President Bill Clinton, who helped establish the program in the 1990s, issued a statement Wednesday saying the attacks are false.

He said waivers from welfare requirements are nothing new and do not pose a threat to the nation's workforce.