2 children found living in abandoned bus in Texas

[happyslug]

39. I remember the CHIP program and then Governor Bush of Texas

Children, Infant, insurance program was a program that started in Western Pennsylvania in the 1980s. The Denominational Ministry Strategy (DMS) had been causing problem for US Steel since US Steel closed down its plants in the early 1980s. DMA kept asking the same questions, how do you help the people who were laid off and then could NOT find another job? Studies have shown that most people get jobs through friends and relatives, but when the Steel Plants went down, everyone's friends and relatives were also laid off, thus how to find them employment, keep their homes AND pay for medical care.

This had an affect on the various charities in Western Pennsylvania. While many opposed the very aggressive actions of DMS, they supported the ideas behind DMS, and worse people were asking them how are they going to address the issue that DMS were pointing out.

In response, the charities decided to form what later became CHIPS. At first this was a non-government program, but soon the State joined in. The key was it helped those people who were NOT eligible for Welfare, but needed medical care for their children.

Soon afterward, Congress adopted the program with the same requirement, it was to help people over the Welfare guidelines but still needed help getting their Children Medical care. Congress decided to 100% fund the CHIP program unlike Welfare which is the Federal Government MATCHES whatever the State pays.

This is were Bush came in. CHIPS was extended to Texas, and it was advertised for people to apply for it. The problem was the number one reason people were denied CHIP was they were eligible for WELFARE (They income was to low, but had never applied for welfare). To then Governor Bush this was a problem, for while CHIP was 100% federally funded, the State of Texas had to pay 50% of the cost of someone on Welfare. Thus the welfare budget for Texas increased.

Bush "Solution" to this was to demand that if someone applied for CHIPS and was denied do to his or her income being to low, they had to come back another day to apply for Welfare. This was proposed KNOWING most poor people would NOT want to come back a second day. This is how Bush handle the problem of to many people being rejected for CHIPS because they income was TO LOW.



More on the Pastor Daniel Solberg, the religious leader behind DMS by his brother, the Actor David Soul (Solberg is NEVER mentioned as being the reason we have CHIPS):

http://www.davidsoul.com/thefightingministers.html

More on DMS in the 1980s:
http://www.library.pitt.edu/labor_legacy/deindustrializationDMS.htm
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-02-22/news/8601140084_1_western-pennsylvania-west-virginia-synod-defrocking-rev-daniel-solberg

The Other great program to come out of the Collapse of the Steel Industry in the 1980s was the Home Owners Mortgage Emergency Program. This program was started after the Sheriff of Allegheny County Pennsylvania (County Seat ittsburgh) refused to put home up for "Sheriff sale" when the home owners fell behind in mortgage payments do to the lost of their jobs. A GREAT program, if you could show you fell behind do to no fault of your own AND you are expected to get back on your feet within three years (later reduced to two years in the early 1990s, then back to three years as unemployment exceeded 8%), the state would PAY your mortgage for that three year period, the mortgage company could NOT foreclose while you applied for the Assistance (and before any foreclosure could start, a notice informing the home owner of the program had to be mailed by the bank holding the Mortgage. This permitted many a home owner to keep their home. A second lien was put on the home to pay back the money the state paid, but most people rather pay such second mortgage then lose their home.

HEMAP was cancelled last year in Pennsylvania do to the GOP wanting to balance the budget without a tax increase. Thus HEMAP was cancelled in Pennsylvania while other states was looking at it as a solution to the mortgage debacle.

Two program that help a lot of people, that the GOP have tried to kill. There is a war on the poor and the attack on these two programs shows it.