Working Poor Suffer under Bush tax cuts
/Cash crunch: loss of services outweighs tax gains for millions.
The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year. To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending. The affected programs -- job training, housing, higher education and an array of social services -- provide safety nets for the poor. Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded. A six-month Detroit News investigation showed that as a result of the withering government assistance, working poor and destitute Americans are increasingly likely to be placed on waiting lists for help, receive reduced services, or be denied service entirely. The News, after interviewing scores of people across the United States and examining thousands of pages of federal and state financial records, determined the loss of services cost many poor Americans more money than they saved from the tax cuts. In many cases, the poorest lost services and got no tax cut at all. [more
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The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year. To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending. The affected programs -- job training, housing, higher education and an array of social services -- provide safety nets for the poor. Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded. A six-month Detroit News investigation showed that as a result of the withering government assistance, working poor and destitute Americans are increasingly likely to be placed on waiting lists for help, receive reduced services, or be denied service entirely. The News, after interviewing scores of people across the United States and examining thousands of pages of federal and state financial records, determined the loss of services cost many poor Americans more money than they saved from the tax cuts. In many cases, the poorest lost services and got no tax cut at all. [more
]- Bush Tax Cuts Harm Low Income Parents. Federally
subsidized child care, a cornerstone of welfare reforms credited with
moving more than 2.5 million people into the work force in the late
1990s, is a program in deep financial crisis. Funding for the program,
which grew 49 percent during the last three years of the Clinton
administration, is today barely keeping pace with inflation. During the
first three years of the Bush administration, child care funding grew 5
percent, to $4.8 billion. That was not nearly enough to maintain
services in a program that was already helping only one in seven
eligible children. The Bush tax cuts have done little to help
low-income parents. According to this new study, hundreds of
thousands of people across the nation who qualify for assistance are on
waiting lists or get turned away when they apply for help with child
care [more ]
- Despite Unemployment Bush Cut Job Training Money.
Federal job training budgets have dropped $597 million during the Bush
administration, making it more difficult for those living in poverty to
find work and get off government assistance. Job training programs,
rooted in the war on poverty, are critical elements of welfare-to-work
initiatives. The funding cuts, which have affected the poor and the
suddenly unemployed alike, happened even as the nation experienced one
of the longest employment slumps on record. The funding cuts were made
as Congress and the administration pushed through more than $600
billion in tax cuts that went primarily to those making more than
$288,800. The money cut from job training is less than 1 percent of the
tax breaks received this year by those earning an average of more than
$1 million, according to an analysis of the Bush tax cuts by the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, using data from the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office. [more ]
- Pell Grants do Not keep pace with tuition hikes.
Tuition and fees went at Univsersities increased an average of 14
percent last year. Nevertheless, Fedral Pell Grant aid, the
nation's primary college financial aid program for low-income
students remained the same-- the maximum grant is $4,050. As a
resukt students must go searching for private scholarships
and grants.In 1977, the maximum Pell grant paid for 77 percent of the
cost of tuition, room and board at a public, four-year institution.
Today, it covers 41 percent, on average.And despite tuition increases
of up to 40 percent at some universities, the maximum grant award has
remained frozen since 2002. Neither Congress nor the president has
moved to raise the maximum.About 90 percent of Pell grant recipients
now leave school with an average debt of nearly $17,000. [more ]
- Thousands wait for years to get Section 8 Rent Help.
Hundreds of thousands of very low-income Americans are on waiting lists
for rental subsidies around the country. In New York City alone, there
are more than 149,000 people waiting for subsidies. Few will get help
anytime soon. That means thousands will be forced to make unsavory
housing choices, endure dank living conditions and battle homelessness.
In many cities, the waiting time for rental assistance is measured in
years. Section 8 is the federal program that subsidizes rent for the poor in privately owned housing. And
although Section 8 currently serves just one in four who qualify for
assistance, there has been no attempt by Congress or the Bush
administration to expand the program. Congress hasn't increased the
number of people getting subsidies since 2002. And the Bush
administration proposes cutting funding for the program by $1.1 billion
next year. [more ]
