Ask Auntie Pinko
August 8, 2002

Dear Auntie Pinko,

I'm deeply saddened by the new welfare bill passed by the House. It severely reduces the ability of welfare recipients to better themselves through education and offers only a pitiful increase in funding for childcare, despite the fact that safe, affordable childcare is desperately needed by working families. Does the government just not care about working families or am I missing something?

Liz
Raleigh, NC

Dear Liz,

It is disappointing, isn't it? Auntie Pinko was frustrated, too.

I think if you asked any individual member of Congress or the Senate if they "care about working families," you would get a resounding 100% "yes!" So framing the question that way isn't going to get you much in the way of a useful answer. The key to understanding this decision lies in some other questions, like:

What is a "working family?"
What does "caring" about them mean?
What do you care about more than working families?

The first question will help us sort out the real lost causes among our elected representatives. If their definition of a "working family" doesn't include single parents, nontraditional families, etc., you can be pretty certain that the elected representative in question's "care" about working families is purely a political artifact.

The second question is more difficult - there are a lot of sub-questions and issues involved. Ideally "caring" about working families means "working to make it possible for a single wage earner to provide safe and decent shelter, nutritious food and adequate clothing, appropriate health care, and a good quality education for their family, working no more than full-time, and not having to worry about their family's safety while they are doing so."

The good news is that there are actually a fair number of elected representatives who will agree with that definition of "caring," the bad news is that they mostly disagree on how to implement it. At one end we have the pie-in-the-sky idealists who believe that if wealthy businessmen and investors make enough money, they'll see to the matter, and at the other end, we have the equally pie-in-the-sky idealists who believe that all of these factors can be controlled by government fiat and the taxpayer won't mind picking up the tab one bit.

And so the key question is really the third question, and the only problem is that you'll hardly ever get an honest answer to this one. (Sample of an honest answer: "Paying off my campaign quids-pro-quo and banking enough money to ensure my re-election.") If you do get an honest-sounding answer, hang onto that representative like grim death, they're someone you can work with.

However, for the most part, you'll get politalk about how larger issues contribute to the well-being of working families and so in working to rescind bothersome environmental restrictions on business or to advance cheap prescription drug coverage for the elderly the representative is, in reality, showing how much s/he cares about working families. You're then faced with examining how her/his voting record and list of campaign contributors measures up to her/his expressed concern for working families.

It's a long way to go to get the answer to your question, Liz. I suggest you start by attending the town meetings held by your own Congressional representative and Senators, with a few like-minded friends. Share out the questions and make sure you ask all three during the course of the meeting. And remember that most elected officials suffer from CRS (Can't Remember Stuff) syndrome, so you're going to have to go to a LOT of meetings before the implications of your questions start to sink in.

Letters and personal meetings can help reinforce the questions and clarify the answers, too. Good luck, Liz, and thanks for asking Auntie Pinko!

View Auntie's Archive

Do you have a question for Auntie Pinko?

Do political discussions discombobulate you? Are you a liberal at a loss for words when those darned dittoheads babble their talking points at you? Or a conservative, who just can't understand those pesky liberals and their silliness? Auntie Pinko has an answer for everything.

Just send e-mail to: [email protected], and make sure it says "A question for Auntie Pinko" in the subject line. Please include your name and hometown.