Remember how, prior to becoming House speaker, one of Paul Ryan’s big things was that Congress was going to end poverty by converting assistance programs to block grants because flexibility and freedom or something? Well, wouldn’t you know, block grants don’t work out like Ryan suggested they would, and we know that, because block grants are not some new Paul Ryan invention.
According to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Funding for all but one of these programs has shrunk in inflation-adjusted terms since their inception, in some cases dramatically. (In this paper, all figures are for fiscal years, not calendar years, and unless indicated otherwise, are adjusted for inflation.) For the 13 block grants, the median change in a block grant’s funding between its inception and 2015 is a decline of one-quarter, or 25 percent. For four of the block grants, funding plunged by more than 60 percent. For example, funding for the job training block grant, focused on improving employment and earnings prospects, has fallen 70 percent since it was adopted in 1982. [...]
Only funding for the child care block grant has increased both since inception (in 1991) and since 2000. Even that program has witnessed a funding decline since 2002. Funding for this block grant increased significantly from 2000 to 2002, but has deteriorated by 17 percent since then.
This general downward funding trend has occurred while need has increased. The overall U.S. population has grown by 14 percent since 2000. In fact, overall funding for the 13 block grants has fallen by 37 percent since 2000, when adjusted for population growth as well as inflation.
It’s almost like Paul Ryan’s Republican Who Cares About Poverty act is just an act.
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● Kaiser mental health clinicians have a new contract that will benefit patients:
Staffing was our top concern. Kaiser’s severe understaffing produces long, illegal waits for patients. The giant HMO simply doesn’t place enough staff on the floors—leaving clinicians unable to see patients frequently enough to provide effective, ongoing treatment. [...]
Our tentative agreement includes an unprecedented scheduling ratio—one new-patient appointment per four returning-patient appointments—that will allow us to see returning patients more frequently. Kaiser will be required to hire more clinicians if it can’t meet the ratio for three months.
● Hillary Clinton scored another major union endorsement, this one from SEIU, on Tuesday. The union endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, and is one of the major backers of the Fight for 15. So is it a contradiction to endorse a candidate who doesn't support a $15 federal minimum wage? The union's president says no:
“We don’t see it as a contradiction,” Ms. Henry said about the union’s support for a candidate who is not supportive of raising the overall wage to $15, adding that Mrs. Clinton had encouraged her to keep up the pressure to push the wage to that level. “She said to me, ‘Listen, S.E.I.U. and Fight for $15 should continue to push the whole nation, we all need to get to $15.’”
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