The Obama administration is focused intently on easing poverty, more so than perhaps any administration since the mid-1960s. But there’s more to be done if we want live up to the belief that all Americans should have a real opportunity to build economic security.
Barbara Blum is the former President of MDRC and former Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services.
http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org//E...
So, after reading some diaries today based on a premise offerd by Charles Blow in his editorial here, http://topics.nytimes.com/...
and asking questions that went unanswered, I decided to answer the question "What about the poor?" as posed to the Obama administration on dKos with a little research on my own. I went to spotlightonpoverty.org, a blog that devotes a good deal of time to the subject matter and found the above quote.
One of the most interesting things that I learned is that the Obama administration is actually raising the bar for how we measure poverty in the first place. I don't see how this fits the meme I read today that Obama somehow "doesn't care about poverty."
For the first time in nearly 45 years, the US is changing the way it defines poverty.
The Obama administration announced Tuesday a new formula that will take into account a wider range of factors in determining who is poor. The Supplemental Poverty Measure will provide a more accurate portrait, the administration says, of how many Americans are struggling financially, though it will not entirely replace the existing poverty measure in use since the mid-1960s.
The new measure is expected to show that the poverty rate in America is higher than the number produced under the existing formula.
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
This was announced in March of 2010. By my reading, this means that not only does the administration examine poverty, they found the current standard unfair and although it would register as if there is an INCREASE in poverty under their administration, found it important enough to implement this measure to get to the truth the country has been ignoring since the 60's.
That's significant to me. Here we have a politician who will think beyond his own political shelf-life to do what is right in measurements that affect how we help the most vulnerable in our nation. This kind of flies in the face, for me, of the lecture I read this morning about not having proper morality in the administration toward the impoverished.
My state's former commissioner of social services goes on to give other instances of Obama's measures that are combatting poverty, albeit "quietly" from within the administration:
The overhaul of the student financial aid system and implementation of the Post 9/11 GI Bill are key steps toward reaching the President’s call for Americans to obtain at least one year of college or vocational training—not only for themselves, but for the good of the country’s economy.
I have two kids in college for the past two years, on a teacher's salary. I cannot tell you how much student loan reform means to myself and my children. I may not be living in "poverty" as of yet, but I could see it easily for either of my kids in their near futures with the way things were. The interest rates for loans, astronomical. The payment terms, criminal. Our kids were set up to fail if they dared go for degrees, and things have gotten better for their prospects. Tax time told a different story under Obama for my family as well.
Then there's these:
At the Labor Department, Secretary Hilda Solis has made enforcement of wage and hour laws a priority, recognizing that many employers fail to follow them, which can cost a typical low-wage worker an estimated $2,500 in annual earnings, according to the Interfaith Justice Center. Recent enforcement actions in the poultry and health care sectors have helped thousands of low-wage workers recoup rightfully-earned income.
And the administration is working to implement many of the recommendations of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to remove barriers that prevent low-income families from obtaining critical benefits, including SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps), child nutrition subsidies, and the Earned Income Tax Credit—economic supports that can be critical to a family’s economic survival.
and this comment, which started Blum's post:
This disturbing increase [in poverty level] reflects the ongoing fallout of the economic downturn. But the fact is that the statistics would have been worse had it not been for a concerted effort by the Obama administration to ease poverty—an effort that deserves more attention.
This quiet campaign for change has three key planks: building human capital, enforcing wage and hour standards, and providing income-enhancing benefits.
Now I know it's been two whole years and all since he was sworn in, but have we all really forgotten the place we were at when he took over?
After a little more surfing, what I found was what I often find when checking out what criticism about this administration is about. I found that help for the impoverished was actually happening, like most of Obama's reforms, at what might be considered a break-neck speed in Washington D.C.
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Obama Administration has made a broad and significant investments to help reduce and assist people that have become victims of the increased poverty made worse by economic crisis.
- A $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps.
- A $1 billion in funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) that is intended to revitalize low-income communities via "Job training and placement assistance", "Financial literacy programs", et al, to helping families become self-sufficient.
- A $2 billion in new Neighborhood Stabilization Funds that will allow ailing neighborhoods be kept maintained.
- A $1.5 billion in Homelessness Prevention Funds to keep people in their homes and prevent homelessness.
- A $5 billion increase for the Weatherization Assistance Program to help low income families save on their residential energy expenditures by making their homes more energy efficient.
- A $4 Billion program, The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, "authorizes funding for federal school meal and child nutrition programs and increases access to healthy food for low-income children."
- As part of the HCR bill, subsidies will be available to the uninsured and families with income between the 133 percent and 400 percent of poverty level($14,404 for individuals and $29,326 for a family of four).
- Estabilished Open Doors to end the 640,000 men, women and children who are homeless in America by 2020.
- Increased the amount of federal Pell Grant awards so that funds are available to those with less access to have opportunity.
- Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing.
- Expanded eligibility for Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,400 per year for an individual).
- Providing assistance to low-income workers through the Earned Income Tax Credit giving millions of working families the break they need.
- Education being the way out of Poverty, kicked off the "Race to the Top", a $4.3 billion program, that rewards via grants to States that meet a few key benchmarks for reform, and states that outperform the rest.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/...
I also found this, food for thought from TiMT:
There are these memes that call out on the Obama Administration as an Administration that doesn’t care about the poor or the "Black poor" and Obama is not fighting enough to reduce poverty to help low income Americans.
I just don't buy it. It seems like a Rovian Strategy - if you continue to repeat it, it will stick and destroy. I ain't having that so I will highlight what this Administration is doing to fighting poverty.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/...
I posted several different excerpts of Obama's State of the Union speech in which he addresses the plight of the poor in this country. The fact that Obama didn't mention the word "poverty" in his speech seems to be the impetus for this meme appearing on Daily Kos. No one argued that the excerpts didn't actually address the poverty issue. Beyond that, I find that level of interpretation a little insulting to the issue of poverty. Has it really come to that? Don't use the word poverty, and you don't care about it? It trivializes the problem, in my eyes. Therefore, after checking this out on my own (a practice I recommend for Dkos readers all around), I have to go with the sentiment of the comment above.