Jay Rothermel
15th February 2009, 20:08
http://www.workers.org/2009/us/welfare_0212/index.html (http://www.workers.org/2009/us/welfare_0212/index.html)
excerpts:
Bill Clintons cruel legacy
Welfare vanishes as poverty soars
By Fred Goldstein
Published Feb 4, 2009 3:34 PM
As millions are being thrown out of their homes and losing their jobs, state governments are reducing the meager assistance available to the poor and unemployed.
Some 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008. The announcement of 500,000 to 600,000 more layoffs in January is expected soon and hundreds of thousands of job cuts are already slated for February.
Yet the number of people getting cash assistance during this crisis remained at or near the lowest in 40 years. An article in the Feb. 2 New York Times reported the grim figures.
Eighteen states actually cut their welfare rolls in the midst of the crisis. Michigan, one of two states with official unemployment of more than 9 percent, cut its welfare rolls by 13 percent. Of the 12 states where unemployment grew most rapidly, eight of them either cut the rolls or kept them the same.
Of the 10 states with the highest child poverty rates, eight kept caseloads level or further reduced the rolls. Five states had double-digit reductions in the welfare rolls, including Texas, which ended assistance to 15 percent of recipients.
These cuts, primarily aimed at women, come at a time when joblessness among women without a high school degree and aged 20 to 24 rose to 23.9 percentfrom 17.9 percent a year ago. Celia Hagert of the Center for Public Policy in Austin, Texas, told the Times, Were really just pushing families off the program.
. . . .
....Now the country is in the midst of an enormous and growing economic crisis that is engulfing wider and wider sections of the workers. But because of the Clinton destruction of welfare, with the switch from AFDC to TANF, caseloads have fallen every year since 1994. The present level of 4.1 million has not been seen since 1964. The fact is that cash benefits paid out under TANF as of October 2008 were only 30 percent of the benefits that had been paid out under AFDC.
The Clinton group has largely moved into the present administration, including Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rahm Emanuel, among others. This is the group that helped Clinton and Gingrich wield the ax that fell upon the workers and the oppressed and that is intensifying suffering now.
The only road to reverse this devastating onslaught against the workers and the oppressed is to mobilize a massive fightback campaign that demands not only minimal benefits, but the full guarantee of a job at living wages with benefits or a livable income. This should be the true entitlement of the multinational working class.
excerpts:
Bill Clintons cruel legacy
Welfare vanishes as poverty soars
By Fred Goldstein
Published Feb 4, 2009 3:34 PM
As millions are being thrown out of their homes and losing their jobs, state governments are reducing the meager assistance available to the poor and unemployed.
Some 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008. The announcement of 500,000 to 600,000 more layoffs in January is expected soon and hundreds of thousands of job cuts are already slated for February.
Yet the number of people getting cash assistance during this crisis remained at or near the lowest in 40 years. An article in the Feb. 2 New York Times reported the grim figures.
Eighteen states actually cut their welfare rolls in the midst of the crisis. Michigan, one of two states with official unemployment of more than 9 percent, cut its welfare rolls by 13 percent. Of the 12 states where unemployment grew most rapidly, eight of them either cut the rolls or kept them the same.
Of the 10 states with the highest child poverty rates, eight kept caseloads level or further reduced the rolls. Five states had double-digit reductions in the welfare rolls, including Texas, which ended assistance to 15 percent of recipients.
These cuts, primarily aimed at women, come at a time when joblessness among women without a high school degree and aged 20 to 24 rose to 23.9 percentfrom 17.9 percent a year ago. Celia Hagert of the Center for Public Policy in Austin, Texas, told the Times, Were really just pushing families off the program.
. . . .
....Now the country is in the midst of an enormous and growing economic crisis that is engulfing wider and wider sections of the workers. But because of the Clinton destruction of welfare, with the switch from AFDC to TANF, caseloads have fallen every year since 1994. The present level of 4.1 million has not been seen since 1964. The fact is that cash benefits paid out under TANF as of October 2008 were only 30 percent of the benefits that had been paid out under AFDC.
The Clinton group has largely moved into the present administration, including Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rahm Emanuel, among others. This is the group that helped Clinton and Gingrich wield the ax that fell upon the workers and the oppressed and that is intensifying suffering now.
The only road to reverse this devastating onslaught against the workers and the oppressed is to mobilize a massive fightback campaign that demands not only minimal benefits, but the full guarantee of a job at living wages with benefits or a livable income. This should be the true entitlement of the multinational working class.