General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Making the perfect the enemy of the good." [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)...that we never go back to THOSE politics.
And as to the welfare bill, I'll just say I stand with the Edelmans on that.
Yes, the whole welfare structure needs to be changed-one of the dirty secrets of the whole thing was that there were a lot of right-wing Dems in the past who wouldn't vote for federal jobs programs, but WOULD vote for welfare- I could never figure out that mindset, given that the vast majority of the non-working poor have always wanted to work-but Bill should have started out by introducing reform legislation that would address the worst problem of all: the pointless, barbaric insistence that two parent families be barred from receiving public assistance. This was imposed to appease conservatives, and did more to accelerate family breakup than any other measure, from what I've seen. If forced to choose between keeping your marriage together and feeding their kids, in a situation where jobs are totally unavailable due to redlining, people are generally going to choose ending the marriage to be able to feed the kids. Pretty much anyone would make that choice, I think.
A true welfare reform measure, one based on the justified assumption that the poor want to cease being poor, needs to include jobs program in areas where redlining and its aftereffects have created economic dead zones, needs to make training for good-paying jobs easily available, and should subsidize intact families as a good in themselves. It should economically intervene, because "the magic of the market" is never, ever going to work to eradicate poverty-the market needs poverty to much to let it be wiped out.