Facing the truth of poverty

[dajoki]

Facing the truth of poverty
March 10, 2011 by Thomas Raphael-Nakos
http://bettendorf.com/node/1123

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According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. poverty rate has risen to 14.3 percent today. With the desire by Conservatives to cut just about every safety-net provision, and the unemployment rate hovering near 10 percent, the likelihood is high the poverty rate will rise dramatically in the future.

Perhaps the most destructive policy to weaken the Great Society anti-poverty efforts was established during the Reagan years. The "starve the beast” strategy was to deny funds to the programs rather than attacking them outright.

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The anti-anti-poverty movement was bipartisan. Following the lead of the Republican Congress’ "Contract with America," President Bill Clinton ended welfare as we know it by promoting and signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) replaced the Great Society’s Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). This change, along with a Workforce Development program, attempted to move single mothers out of the home and into the workplace and off welfare.

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After nearly 50 years of dismantling the War on Poverty we find ourselves moving toward becoming a much poorer society. No amount of tax slashing is going to turn the situation around. No amount of program slashing is going to make us a better society in which to live.

Those who claim “we are broke” are turning that statement into a self-fulfilling prophecy. What we need as a society, if we are to be a humane society, is a vision equal to that of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

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But with a vision, new programs and new ways of dealing with the destructive power of poverty are possible.

Without the vision, as the Hebrew prophets knew, the people die. We will be broke –- and broken -– unless we find a way to lift the least of us up out of the trap of poverty. As a society we are only as wealthy as the poorest of us.