- Welfare spending cut in half since reform, By Tami Luhby, August 9, 2012, CNNMoney: “Today’s welfare program is nothing like what it used to be. In the 16 years since President Clinton and Congress overhauled the nation’s welfare system, the number of people receiving cash assistance has fallen by two-thirds. And public spending on the program has dropped by more than half. Conservative lawmakers and policy analysts have celebrated the reform, saying it has helped put people on the road to self-sufficiency rather than government dependence. But advocates for low-income people contend that Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which is what welfare turned into in 1996, does not adequately support the poor, particularly in tough economic times. The cash assistance portion of TANF has fallen to $9.6 billion in 2011, down from $20.4 billion in what were mostly cash benefits in 1996, according to an analysis by CLASP, a low-income advocacy group. The average number of people receiving payments per month is 4.6 million, down from 12.6 million…”
- Obama’s welfare waiver: Gutting rules or tweaking?, By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (AP), August 9, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Welfare is causing a ruckus in the presidential campaign. But the program is a shadow of its old self from the 1970s, when Ronald Reagan used the image of ‘welfare queens’ to assail government poverty programs promoted by liberals. Nowadays government cash assistance to the poor is mainly conditioned on work. And the Obama administration waivers excoriated by Mitt Romney as gutting welfare reform are unlikely to reverse that basic policy, as even some architects of work requirements acknowledge…”
- Romney presses Obama on work in welfare law, By Trip Gabriel, August 7, 2012, New York Times: “Mitt Romney accused President Obama on Tuesday of gutting one of the signature bipartisan accomplishments of the recent political era: the overhaul of welfare policy. Mr. Romney, taking up criticism that has gripped conservatives for the last few weeks, attacked a directive by the Obama administration that Republicans say does an end run around the welfare law, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, that is widely credited with reducing government dependency…”
Day: August 9, 2012
Hunger Among Seniors – Florida
Hunger risk grows for older Floridians, By Sonja Isger, August 9, 2012, Palm Beach Post: “Rena Drye once relished cooking a good stuffed pepper or cheesecake. But after multiple heart attacks and a big fall, the 91-year-old woman uses a wheelchair and must rely on home-delivered meals to fill her plate at least once a day. Drye, who lives in suburban West Palm Beach, is one of 1,800 seniors in our area who benefit from a federally funded meals program that began in 1965. But more than 560 other seniors across Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast are waiting for that help. Â Statewide, the waiting list for home-delivered meals has more than doubled in the last nine years from 2,976 in 2003 to 7,854 last month, reflecting a national problem of hunger among the elderly. Those in charge of programs to deliver meals to seniors say they face many challenges, including a budget from the federal government that has failed to keep up with inflation, food and transportation costs that have increased the cost of each meal, and an elderly population that is booming in a time of economic hardship…”