The poor need leaders to take responsibility for real solutions

[G_j]

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/sabotaging_the_poor.php

Sabotaging The Poor

Deborah Cutler-Ortiz
June 29, 2004


People living in poverty need leaders to take responsibility for real solutions. Without change, the issues that perpetuate poverty—lack of a living wage, barriers to job training, too few child care opportunities—can't be overcome. Temporary Assistance To Needy Families expires tomorrow, and here, Deborah Cutler-Ortiz from the Children's Defense Fund spells out what needs to be done to save it.

Deborah Cutler-Ortiz is director of the family income division at Children’s Defense Fund. This piece was distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.

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It is an age-old tactic to chalk up the ills of poverty to the poor themselves. Blaming the poor enables those in charge to shirk their responsibilities for ensuring at least a minimal standard of living for all citizens. It relieves the policymakers from having to take responsibility for the systematic issues that perpetuate poverty—keep the poor poor . A clear example is the pending welfare reauthorization. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—the legislation that pays for assistance to households with minor children—expires on June 30.

The Bush administration has proposed drastic and injurious changes to TANF that include reducing or eliminating access to education and training, denying additional funding for child care, eliminating the requirement for states to screen for barriers (i.e., disabilities, mental health problems, educational levels or substance abuse), and imposing harsh work requirements.

In spite of the fact that President Bush himself has stated that people must be provided the resources and flexibility to help make the transition to self-sufficiency, the administration’s proposals reveal the emptiness of this rhetoric. Demonstration of the administration's sentiment was exemplified on May 20, when Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson testified before a House committee, and claimed, "Being poor is a state of mind, not a condition."

Policymakers’ statements do not get real people jobs, nor do they ensure that jobs provide adequate hours, benefits or a living wage. Indeed, people are working and looking for work in a tenuous economy. More than 30 million families work, but continue to live in poverty. One-third of welfare recipients who find work do so for minimum wage—$5.15 an hour—a rate stagnant for more than seven years. This wage ensures that families will continue living in poverty. Furthermore, these jobs usually lack benefits such as health insurance or paid leave. Compounding the issue are welfare system obstacles that stymie individuals seeking more-skilled positions by prohibiting education and training opportunities. These impediments clearly limit upward mobility. While the financial portfolios of highly skilled workers seem to be doing better in recent years, the earnings of less-educated workers have stagnated or fallen.


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[Hotler]

1. More greed equals more poor.

Corporate and aristocratic greed is whats hurting this country. The repubs cry-bag about welfare to the workers yet say nothing about corporate welfare. Cut corporate welfare and you'll have lower taxes, less government, and more money in the working mans pocket. If the rich had to earn their money in an open and honest way, there would be a lot less of them.

[struggle4progress]

2. The poor need to vote for their own interests. eom