The plight of the middle class is shaping up to be a focus of the 2012 presidential campaign. This is as it should be, given the struggles of working families during the Great Recession, with its continuing high unemployment rates and depressed housing market. There is also likely to be some attention on the very rich, and especially on the question of whether they pay their fa (...)
Short Take
Who Will Speak of the Poor?
The Silence at the Center of Our Politics
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Mary Jo was at the center of welfare reform and is very knowledgeable about what has worked and what hasn't. Unfortunately the giant strides we all made locally in assisting people make the transition from welfare to work from 1998 thru 2001 were set back forcibly by the dot.com recession, the Enron conspiracy over gas and electric rates, and the defeat of the democrats by George W. Bush. Our local representative to congress was the chair of the president's program to 'strengthen' welfare reform. In hearing after hearing he was advised that draconian work rules, massive reductions in workforce investment act programs and drastic cuts to supportive programs would cause chaos. We had just succeeded locally in reducing the welfare case load by over 50% and many local non-profits, churches and public agencies worked very hard to cooperatively engage and support the clients. All that effort came crashing down, funds evaporated, and stringent rules were enacted to make it almost impossible to do anything but eligibility work - no social work at all. This attitude continues apace and is ignored and remains unchallenged by our bishops and clergy. Meanwhile, the poor, the elderly, the massively unemployed and especially hungry children are left completely out in the cold. Poverty rages across the land and the silence is deafening. As Mary Jo concludes, we should all be ashamed.