Here is an interview that David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World did with Spotlight on Poverty on the current budget and its effect on poor people here and abroad. To watch the interview click here.
This is an important issue; the proposed budget cuts are targeting those who are most vulnerable.
Hungry People Overseas Hit Hardest by Proposed Cuts
May 2011
The most alarming provisions of H.R. 1, the House spending bill discussed in this issue’s front-page story, affect some of the poorest people in the world. These provisions would make drastic cuts to international humanitarian and development assistance programs, such as emergency food aid, health (including HIV treatment), child survival, clean water, and sustainable agriculture.
Food aid and the McGovern-Dole program, which provides school lunches to children from poor families, would face the largest cuts: 46 percent. Hundreds of millions of dollars would be stripped from each of several other accounts, including Development Assistance, PEPFAR, Global Health and Child Survival, and the Millennium Challenge Account.
via Hungry People Overseas Hit Hardest by Proposed Cuts – Bread for the World: Have Faith. End Hunger..
See also this pdf file from Bread for the World: The US Budget: Myths and Realities.
Better Choices for Pennsylvania has a set of guiding principles which provide a moral approach to a PA budget.
The following two statements highlight that approach.
It is the legal and moral duty of Pennsylvania government, state and local, to efficiently deliver essential, quality services to Pennsylvanians. All Pennsylvanians – children, families, business owners, residential taxpayers, senior citizens, and others – benefit from this necessary government infrastructure.
A state budget that builds upon sound public investments. We must maintain strategic public investments in education, health care, transportation, natural resources and human services that make our state a desirable place to live and create a healthy climate for economic growth. The economic crisis should not cause Pennsylvania to lose ground on our gains in education and the economy.
An interesting theory.
The Class-Domination Theory of Power
by G. William Domhoff
April 2005
NOTE: WhoRulesAmerica.net is largely based on my book, Who Rules America?, first published in 1967 and now in its 6th edition. This on-line document is presented as a summary of some of the main ideas in that book.
Who has predominant power in the United States? The short answer, from 1776 to the present, is: Those who have the money have the power. George Washington was one of the biggest landowners of his day; presidents in the late 19th century were close to the railroad interests; for the Bush family, it was oil and other natural resources, agribusiness, and finance. But to be more exact, those who own income-producing property — corporations, real estate, and agribusinesses — set the rules within which policy battles are waged.
via Who Rules America: The Class-Domination Theory of Power.
As I was visiting hospitals and health huts in Senegal, I was also receiving e-mailed updates on House GOP budget cuts. The Global Fund, down 40 percent. Child survival programs, which include anti-malaria efforts, down 10 percent. AIDS relief, down 8 percent. Development assistance, down 30 percent.These reductions were intended to be symbolic, but what do they symbolize? Fiscal responsibility? Hardly. No one can reasonably claim that the budget crisis exists because America spends too much on bed nets and AIDS drugs. … Claiming courage or credit for irrelevant cuts in foreign assistance is a net subtraction from public seriousness on the deficit. So, do these cuts symbolize the Republican rejection of fuzzy-headed liberalism? Actually, the main initiatives on malaria and AIDS were created under Republican leadership.
The Census Bureau took a baby step toward redefining what is considered poor in America on Tuesday when it released several alternative measurements of poverty, fundamentally revising a one-size-fits-all formula developed in the 1960s by a civil servant.
via Census releases alternative formulas for gauging poverty.
This assault on public workers is happening in one state after another around the country.“This is a concerted, deep attack on public employees and public workers,” Gerald W. McEntee, president of the 1.6-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees AFSCME, told the Washington Post last month.
via The Cynical War on Public Sector Workers | The Progressive.
The answer is this. When it comes to protecting the fortunes of America’s rich (mostly top corporate executives and Wall Street) and maintaining their strangle-hold on the political process, Senate Republicans, along with some Senate Democrats, don’t budge
via Robert Reich (Why Obama Wins on Foreign Policy and Gays but Loses on Economics and Taxes).
The welfare rolls have absorbed relatively few of the Americans who have tumbled lately into poverty or unemployment.
This is a very interesting article.
Drugs are a major problem in my working class/low income neighborhood. At one time there were two active crack houses the second house away from mine on either side. In the past five years more than 200 rounds have been fired with-in a three block radius of my house. During a six week period last summer there were 8 shots-fired incidents in my neighborhood. New Kensington has an outstanding police department; our police do an excellent job of trying to close down the problem, but it keeps reappearing. As I write this there is not an active drug house on my block. However, two drug users were arrested in front of my house last week.
I see the effects of the drug problem every day. Most of the dealers I have seen are young men 18-25 without an education and without any prospects of gainful employment. Slum landlords are part of our problem but even in that poverty is the ultimate reason there are slum landlords.
I keep asking myself what is the fuel for the problems I see daily here in my neighborhood. I think this author has nailed it on the head. Poverty.
This is an important article that looks at the problem of poverty as the source.
If we are ever going to solve our social problems we need to address and eliminate poverty. This will take a concerted nation-wide effort.
Please read the article below.
Addiction exacts a toll not because the latest drug is more addictive or more potent than its predecessors but because there is too little treatment, few family or community supports and acute economic insecurity in low-income households.
via The drug war on the poor: America doesn’t have a drug problem, it has a poverty problem.
Why would the working poor pay more? Because the proposal would replace this year’s Making Work Pay (MWP) credit with a temporary reduction in the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. That’s a good deal for high earners, who got nothing from MWP (thanks to an income phaseout), but a bad deal for those making $20,000 or less.
via TaxVox: the Tax Policy Center blog :: The Obama-GOP Deal: A Tax Hike for the Working Poor.
The U.S. child poverty rate has fluctuated between 15 and 23 percent for the past four decades, but far more children—37 percent—live in poverty at some point during their childhoods. Being poor at birth strongly predicts future poverty status. Using the PSID, this study finds that 49 percent of children who are poor at birth go on to spend at least half their childhoods living in poverty. In addition, children who are born into poverty and spend multiple years living in poor families have worse adult outcomes than their counterparts in higher-income families.
Quite unlike today’s public, what Depression-era Americans wanted from their government was, on many counts, more not less. And despite their far more dire economic straits, they remained more optimistic than today’s public. Nor did average Americans then turn their ire upon their Groton-Harvard-educated president — this despite his failure, over his first term in office, to bring a swift end to their hardship. FDR had his detractors but these tended to be fellow members of the social and economic elite.
via How a Different America Responded to the Great Depression – Pew Research Center.
Not only did Congress give zillionaires billions of dollars in tax breaks, they also told the people at the bottom of the economic ladder, “tough luck.” With unemployment at nearly 10 percent and 19 million Americans currently living in “deep poverty” (below half the poverty line), federal funds for the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) program, the federal program that replaced welfare, have entirely dried up for the first time since 1996.
via Billions for Millionaires, Zilch for Neediest Families | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG.
Senate Attempt at Full-Year Appropriations Collapses
Child Care, Head Start, Disabilities, and Housing Programs Likely to Suffer
There was an outside chance that Congress would be able to agree on a full-year appropriations bill during the waning days of its session. For parents needing help with child care or placing their children in Head Start, the outcome was very important. These programs are facing a significant loss of funding as the temporary increase provided by economic recovery legislation expires. An omnibus spending bill proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee would have mitigated the loss of the temporary funding by increasing child care base dollars by $681 million and Head Start by $840 million over their FY 2010 levels.
via CHN: Senate Attempt at Full-Year Appropriations Collapses.
BUDGET-CUTTING CONSEQUENCES
The budget-cutting has begun, and governments around the world are paying attention to the sharp-knives in Congress. So when the House of Representatives released a draft Continuing Resolution this week with only $100 million in fiscal year 2011 allocated to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) – a severe reduction from President Obama’s request for $408 million – a host of humanitarian organizations were quick to pen a letter to the White House sounding a stern warning about the consequences of the cut
via Roger Thurow – Outrage and Inspire – “BUDGET-CUTTING CONSEQUENCES” – Global Food for Thought.
It’s hard to figure out what the corporations have to complain about. Corporate America registered the highest profits on record last quarter. Companies are sitting on more than a trillion dollars in cash. CEOs are pocketing record compensation. Wall Street is back handing out million-dollar bonuses. The president’s tax deal extends their tax breaks, promises a lower rate on their estates and extends billions in corporate tax subsidies.
The AFL-CIO provides a helpfu guide to just how well the barons meeting with the president are doing. John Chambers, the chairman and chief executive officer of Cisco, was paid $10.2 million during last year’s recession — about 320 times the $32,048 that the average worker took home. Kenneth Chennault, chairman and chief executive officer of American Express, made do with $17.3 million — or an astounding 524 times what the average worker makes.
via Opinion: Getting all of America working – Robert L. Borosage – POLITICO.com.
The child nutrition bill that President Obama signed this morning includes an important new option that will allow thousands of schools in high-poverty areas to focus on feeding children rather than processing paperwork. This is a terrific opportunity for states to serve more low-income children through the school meals program.
Known as “community eligibility,” the option will allow schools or school districts where the vast majority of the students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price meals to serve free breakfasts and lunches to all children. Families won’t have to complete applications providing detailed information on their income. And schools won’t have to process those applications or have a cashier figure out whether to provide a free or reduced-price meal every time a child goes through the lunch line.
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