Re: more of the same...

[Joel Blau <jblau@xxxxxxxxx>]

We should try to prevent Bush's tightening of the TANF regulations. At the same
time, we are never going to return to anything like the AFDC program, which
provided public assistance under industrial capitalism and the family
configuration that went with it. It is for these very reasons that the first
Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Grant (BIG) has been scheduled in New York,
March 8-9. First congresses in social welfare make for an ambiguous precedent:
the successful ones led to Social Security, the unsuccessful ones--well, we
still don't have national health care. In any event, PEN-Lers might want to take
a look at the website and the papers that accompany it.
http://www.widerquist.com/usbig/announcement.html

Joel Blau



Devine, James wrote:

> from SLATE's daily news summary (of major US newspapers): >The Los Angeles
> Times leads with the president's proposal to strengthen work requirements
> for welfare recipients, while also offering expanded work-training programs
> so that people will be better equipped to meet the tougher standards. Bush's
> suggested reforms also included a proposal to spend about $200 million to
> encourage recipients to get married.
> ... The NY [TIMES] notices that although Bush's welfare proposal calls for
> recipients to be working more, it doesn't appear to offer any additional
> funds for childcare. <
>
> again, an intensification of the punitive approach to "helping" poor women
> and their children. The LA TIMES headline says it all, emphasizing Bush's
> phrase "the ethic of work" (designed to parallel "the axis of evil"??).
> Since when Bush and his cronies valued work among their own crew? Dubya
> inherited his wealth and political power. Whatever happened to richie Andrew
> Carnegie's proposal for strict taxes on inherited wealth, in order to
> prevent the creation of generations of spoiled rich kids like Dubya?
>
> I didn't see anything in Dubya's proposal to deal with the fact that some
> "welfare" recipients are hitting the ceiling and can't receive any more
> benefits -- at a time when unemployment is projected to continue to rise for
> a year or more. But perhaps my eyes were clouded by anger.
>
> Jim Devine