October 12, 2005--The Poverty Two-Step
Remember all the hopeful talk about poverty and race that was a byproduct of the Katrina-Rita tragedies? How President Bush began to sound a little like LBJ Redux? After rousing from his biking and brush cutting vacation in Crawford, the President said, “All of us saw on television [let’s for the moment forget that he has repeatedly claimed that he does not watch TV but gets his news summarized for him by staffers], all of us saw there is some deep, persistent poverty in this region . . . with roots in a history of racial discrimination.” Following that revelation, there was a rash or poverty-alleviation proposals from the President and other Republicans for new federal programs that echoed the best days of the Great Society. Programs that would cost hundreds of billions. Those of us old enough to remember those good-old-days (forgetting for the moment that we were at the same time sinking deeper and deeper into the Vietnam quagmire) could almost sense the faint strains of kumbaya rising from the White House.
Well, as they used to say, a funny thing happened on the way to Great Society II. As reported in yesterday’s NY Times, hopes are fading fast that there will be any credible, systemic effort to take on the entwined evils of poverty and race (see full article below). In fact, Congressional conservatives are already calling for cuts in Medicaid and Food Stamps, arguably programs most immediately essential to the victims of the twin hurricanes. And don’t even begin to ask what these same Congress folks are saying about the kinds of programs that might provide opportunities for people to actually emerge from poverty.
Voices on the Right see some logic in this larger situation, saying that if the storm revealed the true nature and extent of poverty in America, the hurricanes exposed that the programs that have historically been funded to alleviate poverty have failed. If they had been working, poverty by now would have been eliminated. QED.
To be fair, Republican conservatives do have a bushel of programs to recommend. Allow me to enumerate them—In order to assure that low-skill, low-income local people will be hired to help rebuild the Gulf Region, they are calling for the suspension of the requirements that compel federal contractors (Halliburton and others) to pay “locally prevailing wages” (read minimum wage) or act affirmatively (read, hire women and minorities). Also, as part of the larger agenda to continue to cut taxes, some have suggested tax reductions beyond those already on the table. In a particularly brilliant slight of hands, key Congressional leaders are calling for tax cuts targeted for the rebuilding effort itself—setting up tax-free zones in the Gulf States for businesses and of course school vouchers for students impacted by the storms.
Do I hear echoes of Trickle Down? I think so. For example, Representative Mike Price the other day recalled a favorite story of Ronald Reagan’s, about a pipe fitter who told that President, “I’ve never been hired by a poor man.”
To be dispassionate for a moment, let’s take a glance at the record. During the Clinton administration, tax rates for upper income families were raised and by anyone’s measure the economy boomed and the poverty rate fell for 7 of his 8 years in office. Since the massive tax cuts for the wealth passed during the first Bush years, the poverty rate has risen every year. We now have 12.7 percent of the total population living in poverty—24.7 percent of blacks and 21.9 percent of Hispanics.
Just yesterday, during his eighth trip to the Gulf, the President and his wife actually rolled up their sleeves and got to work, helping to build a house. They spend at least a half hour at the site, banging in a few nails for the good of the cause and the cameras. Sort of a Mission Accomplished moment as much as inspiration for the rest of us.
I must admit I couldn’t help wondering if they too were being paid at less than the “locally prevailing wages” and if they had somehow gotten their jobs through any affirmative action programs.
Well, as they used to say, a funny thing happened on the way to Great Society II. As reported in yesterday’s NY Times, hopes are fading fast that there will be any credible, systemic effort to take on the entwined evils of poverty and race (see full article below). In fact, Congressional conservatives are already calling for cuts in Medicaid and Food Stamps, arguably programs most immediately essential to the victims of the twin hurricanes. And don’t even begin to ask what these same Congress folks are saying about the kinds of programs that might provide opportunities for people to actually emerge from poverty.
Voices on the Right see some logic in this larger situation, saying that if the storm revealed the true nature and extent of poverty in America, the hurricanes exposed that the programs that have historically been funded to alleviate poverty have failed. If they had been working, poverty by now would have been eliminated. QED.
To be fair, Republican conservatives do have a bushel of programs to recommend. Allow me to enumerate them—In order to assure that low-skill, low-income local people will be hired to help rebuild the Gulf Region, they are calling for the suspension of the requirements that compel federal contractors (Halliburton and others) to pay “locally prevailing wages” (read minimum wage) or act affirmatively (read, hire women and minorities). Also, as part of the larger agenda to continue to cut taxes, some have suggested tax reductions beyond those already on the table. In a particularly brilliant slight of hands, key Congressional leaders are calling for tax cuts targeted for the rebuilding effort itself—setting up tax-free zones in the Gulf States for businesses and of course school vouchers for students impacted by the storms.
Do I hear echoes of Trickle Down? I think so. For example, Representative Mike Price the other day recalled a favorite story of Ronald Reagan’s, about a pipe fitter who told that President, “I’ve never been hired by a poor man.”
To be dispassionate for a moment, let’s take a glance at the record. During the Clinton administration, tax rates for upper income families were raised and by anyone’s measure the economy boomed and the poverty rate fell for 7 of his 8 years in office. Since the massive tax cuts for the wealth passed during the first Bush years, the poverty rate has risen every year. We now have 12.7 percent of the total population living in poverty—24.7 percent of blacks and 21.9 percent of Hispanics.
Just yesterday, during his eighth trip to the Gulf, the President and his wife actually rolled up their sleeves and got to work, helping to build a house. They spend at least a half hour at the site, banging in a few nails for the good of the cause and the cameras. Sort of a Mission Accomplished moment as much as inspiration for the rest of us.
I must admit I couldn’t help wondering if they too were being paid at less than the “locally prevailing wages” and if they had somehow gotten their jobs through any affirmative action programs.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:03 AM
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