9486 in the collection  

Left Out of the Bailout: The Poor

By Mark Kukis

As the roster of corporations and financial
institutions in line for government bailouts
seems to grow, some public-policy advocates in
Washington are calling on policymakers to focus
more efforts on the nation's poorest. The ranks
of the destitute are growing quietly but
alarmingly as much of the world focuses on
troubles surrounding Wall Street. "Recent data
show poverty is already rising quite
substantially," says Robert Greenstein,
executive director of the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities. "There is a strong potential
for more hardship and destitution than we have
seen in this country in a number of decades."

Greenstein's center released a new study on
Monday projecting a sharp rise in the number of
people living below the poverty line, which is
roughly $21,200 annually for a family of four,
according to the Department of Health and Human
Services. An estimated 36.5 million Americans
currently live below the poverty line, but
those numbers will probably increase by as many
as 10.3 million if current projections for the
depth and duration of the recession hold true.
According to the center's analysis, the number
of poor children will grow by as many as 3.3
million. And the number of children in deep
poverty, those in families living on less than
half the wages of the official poverty line,
will climb by as many as 2 million. (See
pictures from John Edwards' tour of poverty-
stricken America.)

Signs of the recession's impact on America's
impoverished are increasingly apparent,
Greenstein says, pointing to a dramatic rise in
food-stamp caseloads in recent months. The
number of people using food stamps has risen
9.6%, or roughly 2.6 million people, from
August 2007 to August 2008, the last period for
which data are available. Food banks around the
country are reporting longer lines even as
donations are falling.

By historical comparison, the expected rise in
the number of impoverished in this recession is
relatively normal. During the recession years
of the 1980s, the number of people in poverty
rose by 9.2 million, an increase of more than a
third. The recession of the 1990s was not quite
as deep but still increased the number of
people in poverty by 6.5 million. But those
falling into poverty now face harder prospects
and need more government help, Greenstein says,
because many social safety nets have been cut
away since past economic downturns. (See
pictures of the recession of 1958.)

A number of policy changes at both state and
federal levels have left basic cash-assistance
programs scarce, the center's study argues.
State general-assistance programs were largely
eliminated across the country in the late 1980s
and early '90s, except for programs benefiting
the disabled. On the federal level, only about
40% of families eligible for cash assistance
under the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families program actually receive it. That is
about half the percentage of families eligible
for the program's predecessor (the Aid to
Families with Dependent Children program) that
received benefits during the recessions of
earlier decades.

President-elect Barack Obama voiced new concern
over the economy on Monday when announcing
picks for his White House economic team, saying
a new economic-stimulus package was needed
right away in addition to the ongoing efforts
to pump more than $700 billion in federal
rescue funds into ailing businesses like
Citigroup. There was no indication how any of
that round of spending will reach the growing
numbers of the nation's neediest.

— Mark Kukis
Time
2008-11-25
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1861843,00.html

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>