As in any other playoff, candidate rhetoric let loose during the U.S. presidential race can be tough. We’ve held a front row seat to the 2012 showdown for over a year, with tensions still rising as the general election looms nearer. Some of the barbs launched along the campaign trail have been laughable: Newt Gingrich’s television ad incriminating Mitt Romney for his ability to speak French comes to mind. Others are not. The dialogue surrounding U.S. poverty and inequality, two issues that are hotter than ever during a deep recession that the nation has shown incapable of simply shaking off [...]
Budget Cuts
House GOP plan would cut social programs to protect military
A key U.S. House committee voted to cut social programs such as food aid, health care and social services instead of imposing budget cuts upon the military. One-fourth of the proposed cuts would come from programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, the Social Services Block Grant, and a child tax credit claimed by immigrant... »
Missouri may slash funding for children’s services
Missouri lawmakers propose to cut funding from the state foster care budget and child-care subsidies for low-income families, as well as eliminate dozens of child protection jobs. Opponents claim that working families may have to sacrifice jobs and resort to welfare for survival. Moreover, the recent surge of children into foster care combined with... »
Texas cuts to family planning could hurt low-income women
Lawmakers and women’s groups in Texas continue to battle over funding family planning programs. Legislators won’t support programs that provide abortions or refer clients to clinics that do; women’s groups fear that low-income women will no longer have access to many of the services clinics provide, such as cervical and breast exams. The Texas... »
States limiting poor’s access to aid
Across the country, states are limiting access to aid programs. In Georgia, applicants approved for aid must take drug tests within 48 hours. The test costs $17, is nonrefundable, and those who fail cannot receive funding for treatment. In California, debate rages over a bill to provide support for low-income women during their second trimester of pregnancy. These... »
Head Start threatened by budget cuts
The Head Start preschool program is being threatened by budget cuts that could reduce the quality of its services. Designed to support children from the neediest families before they enter kindergarten, Head Start is one of the non-mandated programs that most effectively closes the achievement gap between low-income students and their better-off peers. But severe... »
Federal funds to train jobless are drying up
Work force centers nationwide that assist the unemployed struggle to provide job training and other services as federal funds dwindle. The country currently spends less on work force training than it did when jobs were more abundant, but cuts in funding for training have run the political gantlet with little notice. Without funding, work force... »
Funding cuts to affordable housing causes concern
Affordable housing in one Rhode Island town, which primarily houses elderly and low-income residents, will receive one-seventh of their previous level of funding. Many units are already in disrepair: electrical systems too outdated to support modern appliances, exteriors crumbling, and kitchens too small to eat in. Residents and officials voice deep concerns over the implications of further cuts,... »
Mothers, children hurt most from budget cuts
Unemployment rates among women have overtaken those of men, in large part because of cuts in the public sector where women constitute a large percentage of the workforce. Furthermore, recent studies show that budget cuts in health, education, and economic security programs disproportionately hit the jobs and services upon which single mothers rely. »
Maine residents struggle to heat their homes
The federal government has reduced spending on its energy-assistance program for the poor, partly to cut spending, partly to push U.S. energy consumption toward cleaner sources. These changes have been devastating to low-income residents in Maine, where winters are bitter, the housing stock is old, and most communities are rural. Photo credit: Nicole Bengiveno »
Heating aid to poor faces cuts in Northeast
Heating oil prices are expected to hit record highs this winter, but federal and state fuel assistance may reach a record low for recent years. Several Northeastern states have already reduced heating aid benefits, and Congress is considering cutting almost one quarter of its funding to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. As... »