Gop Heading In Wrong Direction
Simple math:
Infant day care costs $600 to $800 a month.
Child care costs $500 to $600 a month.
Minimum wage, at $4.25, makes for an income of approximately $680 a month before taxes.
You figure it out.
If we keep the Earned Income Tax Credit for working poor people and raise the minimum wage to cover at least basic needs, estimated by the Center for Popular Economics at $10,847 for a woman with two children, and keep Medicaid intact for those at the poverty level, then we will probably see a noticeable number of folks move off welfare. Offering them job training and transportation costs would help move even more off the rolls.
So what are the Republicans doing?
Moving to eliminate the EITC for working poor people.
Refusing to consider the minimum wage.
Moving to slash Medicaid.
And that, friends, is a recipe for disaster.
Pat Cole of Seattle wrote to Sen. Patty Murray:
“I found myself at 30 years of age with two children, no job and very few skills to make more than a minimum wage. I was awarded no alimony and $210 a month child support. For a month, I was forced to leave my 8-year-old daughter in charge of my 2-year-old while I worked as a waitress. I could have been arrested and my children taken away from me. My only recourse was public assistance …
“Luckily, the state paid for a vocational program at a community college and the early learning center program for my 2-year-old. Within a year, I was graduated and off welfare; within five years, I was making $45,000. Currently, I am in business for myself as an independent sales representative, and this year, I project sales in excess of $2 million. My oldest daughter works for me, and my youngest daughter is graduating from college. I could never have accomplished this without the availability of education and child care.
“I was given a chance to create a future for myself and my children instead of drifting in low-paid jobs and dangerous environments, with no hope. … What Sen. Dole is suggesting is insane! The idea that there be no child care, that somehow women are supposed to leave their children at the mercy of family or neighbors suggests that he has never been to a poor or even working-class neighborhood. … He pictures some ‘50s fantasyland where some sweet grandmother is being magically supported and willing to lovingly care for her grandchildren. … Excuse me … the reality is that these ‘grandmothers’ are in their 40s, have to work and are struggling to hold their own lives together.”
Another Republican proposal is to raise the retirement age to 70, leaving even fewer grandmothers home to provide child care.
When contacted last week, Cole was even more indignant about “welfare reform.”
“Haven’t any of them ever spent an afternoon at a welfare office?” she demanded.
A five-year cutoff on welfare is not necessarily a bad idea; in fact, 70 percent of women on welfare stay on the rolls for less than two years, according to the Center for Popular Economics. The problem is that many are forced to return to Aid to Families With Dependent Children within five years, almost always because of job loss or a health-care crisis. My favorite quote from the Senate welfare debate came from Texan Kay Bailey Hutchison, who said: “States can be more efficient and more responsible if Washington just gets out of the way.” Hutchison served in the Texas Legislature when her state provided $32 a month - not per week, per month - in AFDC. “Efficient and responsible”? Try callous, racist, cruel and stupid.
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