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PDF versionWelfare reform, 15 years later
by Jamie L Manson on Jul. 15, 2011
"Though more Americans are poor now than ever before, President Obama didn't once say the word poverty in his 2011 State of the Union address. And [New York City Mayor] Bloomberg, despite pledging in 2006 to achieve a major reduction in poverty for those "starting their way up the economic ladder," has used the P-word only once in his past four annual addresses."
As Congress remains in an agonizing deadlock over the budget and politicians sling sound bites about cuts to entitlements, smaller news outlets are looking at the impact of Welfare Reform nearly 15 years after President Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
Thirteen.org, the Web site for New York City's PBS station, looks at "5 ways New Yorkers say welfare policies fail them." In article "Even Entrepreneurs Need Food Stamps," the newspaper City Limits offers an in depth look at the complexities of receiving entitlement benefits.
Though the gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to widen, fewer journalists are reporting on poverty. According to City Limits, a 2007 study of TV news by Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting found that on average, nightly network newscasts reported on poverty or the poor only once every 15 weeks.
Politicians aren't helping to bring the plight of the poor to light. City Limits reports:
who owns the broadcast
who owns the broadcast stations?
Murdoch and the millionaires, and they only want to see golf.
The revolution will not be televised.
--Gil Scott-Heron
I remember Clinton's decision
I remember Clinton's decision to reform Welfare very well during the summer of 1996. As a Social Work student we held a protest demonstration walking through the streets of the town where the college was located in the northeast. I remember thinking as we walked through the town that no one really cared. Then I began to work as a Social Worker and began to feel the consequences of that welfare reform. All that was a result of Gingrich's Contract with America and Clinton having lost the Congress. Things have only gotten worse since that summer, whether it was because of the financial costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars resulting from 9/11 or because of the economic meltdown caused by the Hi-tech and real estate market bubbles bursting. No one talks about the poor or poverty because too many of us are feeling poorer, and we don't need anyone to tell us....not necessarily the really serious poverty of the the third world but many of us are feeling poorer and less secure in our jobs. For those of us, like myself, who have our lives mostly behind us, it is both the economic depression and the emotional and psychological depression realizing that things haven't gotten better, but a lot worse. The whole premise of Clinton's welfare reform is untenable because there are no jobs, especially for the unskilled minorities, especially African Americans. Now we have a new set of Republicans, the Tea Party who are playing politics in an even more destructive way. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are looking out for the interest of the average American. Don't even know if there is such a thing as an "average" American...as several articles from NCR pointed out today, the chasm between rich and poor is getting wider and wider....the middle class is getting smaller and that does not bode well for any of us. Hate to say it, but people care even less in 2011 than they did back during the summer of 1996.
I appreciate your insight and
I appreciate your insight and hopethat it isn't so much that no ones cares as it is that so many are so complacent, are too detached from the issues and just trust and believe in the system. Many people don't vote and even more don't even have the first clue about this state of affairs because it hasn't fully touched their lives yet.
I think uninformed captures what I'm trying to say. If people knew the true plight of the single mother, the true state of affairs for those on welfare, the true lack of assistance for victims of domestic violence, and the utter social abuse that we "blood sucking welfare queens"(as we have been labeled and stigmatized and in fact blamed since 1992)I'm sure people would begin to step up and do something about the fact that they have all along been scammed by a system that has perpetuated these social constructions to continue the patriarchal oppression and continues to prey on the most vulnerable communitieswhile stealing the money themselves. It's an outrage what a farce we are living. The very ones who point the finger are the ba-------- who actually steal the child support from women and children, pitch marginalized groups against eachother, and so on and so forth.
I won't even begin to explain the injustice and utter torture I have endured not to mention the blatant violations and complete disregard for the law and my rights that has been the only thing that has been a constant in my life beside the fear and anxiety at the hands of a system that is a paradox to what it claims to be .. It's a lie..... It's a myth,,,,, and it is not getting better.
We must find an outlet to make people aware of what is really going on and point out to them how it is affecting them (even those not on welfare) and show them that the false stigmatisms and blame placed on the single mother on welfare has been carefully constructed to continue the economic abuse of the nation that worsens on a daily basis.
Our prayers for Venezuelan
Our prayers for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he returns shortly to the island of Cuba for further cancer treatment.
Poverty is relative. During
Poverty is relative. During my childhood in South America I had an opportunity to see stark poverty in its rawest form. On a normalized world scale, the American "poor" live at in the middle to lower middle income level. Even Obama realizes this to be true; thus the reason it doesn't enter into his speeches; the statement is not defensible. Entitlement should be earned through work, even picking produce in the fields. Just ask our friends in Cuba or Vietnam.
visit our cities, sirach, and
visit our cities, sirach, and our rural areas, where most live worse than ever, and many without any health care at all, or substantial housing, or hope for any job at all.
there is after the Bush dynasty no middle class, only a few hyper wealthy and the rest of us in absolute poverty, some who in our quiet desperation do not yet realize this.
look at the life of the alien in our midst . . .
Our friends in Cuba and in Vietnam on the other hand, enjoy health care at least. In fact the president of the OPEC nation Venezuela is traveling now to Cuba for chemotherapy treatment, as did some victims of 9/11 with Michael Moore for their own health care, freely and lovingly given, which they could not receive in the USA.
I have seen the poverty of
I have seen the poverty of our inner cities along the east coast and the rural parts of West Virginia and I’m afraid they don’t begin to compare to the slums of Lima or Santiago. Medical care is available in rural and urban America though it might be difficult to access because the U.S. standard of care is set so high that diagnosis and treatment that would be welcomed as near miraculous in the third world, including Cuba, is unacceptable here in the United States.
I know as I’m part of the “medical establishment” for which you and Mr. Moore seem to have such disdain. As a medical professional I could care less about political actors of any flavor, but I can say that we should all have contempt for the legal predators that have driven the cost of medical care through the roof, both at home and abroad. We should also repudiate parasites like Moore who use people's suffering for their own ends; I don't know of any Moore clinics or foundations dedicated to bringing high quality care to the least among us.
As for the alien in our midst, it would be much easier and cost effective to keep aliens here illegally healthy in their home nations where the cost of provider salaries, equipment and supplies is lower than in the U.S. Nonetheless, they all have access to care in the nation’s emergency departments under Federal law and in some instances, such as in south east Arizona, have bankrupted local medical systems and forced the closure of local hospitals because they violated the seventh commandment and stole something that was not theirs. Now no one there has ready access to medical care.
The quality of care received by citizens of Vietnam and Cuba is so poor, it could not pass a routine Joint Commission survey. In fact, not a single Cuban or full service Vietnamese hospital currently holds accreditation by Joint Commission International, the organization that makes medical recommendations US citizens travelling abroad.
The reason why Chavez went to Cuba for care is that no one else will have him. I expect his condition to claim him within six to nine months so discussing his case is irrelevant. Curious though how the monarch of the leading OPEC nation came to the US for his cancer treatment; wonder what he knows that the junior OPEC nation dictator did not? By the way, I don’t think I’d take medical or any other advice from Michael Moore, other than perhaps a recommendation for a restaurant.
The press doesn't report on
The press doesn't report on the problem of poverty because there is a democrat in the White House. During the Reagan and Bush administration, the press interviewed the homeless, and decried the republican policies.
Here is a suggestion for the
Here is a suggestion for the Catholic Church to set the example in dealing with poverity in the Catholic School System:
A “preferential option for the poor” should be maintained in our Catholic
Schools. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the
poor, the schools should be closed and the resources used for something else
which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a
church primarily for the middle-class and rich while throwing a bone to the
poor. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the
middle-class and rich fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools must close and the resources
used for “Confraternity of Christian Doctrine” and other programs which can
be kept open to the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic
Schools for centuries. We can get along without them today. The essential
factor is to cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition, namely,
THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too. But the
poor come first. (William Horan — w.horan@comcast.net.)
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