Jackson Free Press

October 21, 2004

The public hasn't heard the word "welfare" as often as it did in the last three presidential elections, perhaps due to the bipartisan Welfare Act of 1996 signed by President Bill Clinton. However, the topic remains important because it addresses the needs of Americans with lower incomes or no incomes at all. Mississippians should take special interest. The state's poverty level, nearly 20 percent of the population, is the highest in the nation.

During the last presidential debate in Tempe, Ariz., moderator Bob Schieffer asked Sen. Kerry if it is time to raise the minimum wage. Kerry replied saying, "It's long overdue time to raise the minimum wage. And, America, this is one of those issues that separates the president and myself. We have fought to try to raise the minimum wage in the last years. But the Republican leadership of the House and Senate won't even let us have a vote on it. We're not allowed to vote on it. They don't want to raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage is the lowest minimum wage value it has been in our nation in 50 years. If we raise the minimum wage, which I will do, to $7 an hour, 9.2 million women who are trying to raise their families would earn another $3,800 a year."

According to his "Plan For America," Kerry wants to raise the minimum wage to $7 by 2007. He also wants to increase tax credits for childcare, which he deems essential to building on the success of the work-based welfare reform passed in ‘96.

Put bluntly, Bush's rebuttal was a dodge. "Listen, the No Child Left Behind Act is really a jobs act when you think about it." Although Bush has said there was a bill for raising the minimum wage that he supported, no bill supporting an increase in the minimum wage has been brought to a vote in Congress.

In 2000, Kerry signed a manifesto entitled "A New Agenda for the New Decade." This document resolved to end welfare dependency and forge a new social pact based on work and reciprocal responsibility. Since '92, the welfare rolls have been cut in half. The manifesto stated its goals for the new decade as follows: expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, increasing the supply of affordable childcare, promoting home ownership through tax credits and making absent parents own up to their financial obligations. By 2010, the objectives were to cut the poverty rate in half, to double child support collections and require fathers that owe child support to go to work to pay for it.

In 2003, Kerry also introduced the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act to promote the development of affordable low-income housing through grants to states and local districts. In 2000, Bush created the "American Dream Down Payment Fund," which allowed lower income and minority households to use a year's worth of HUD rental vouchers to make a down payment on a home. He also proposed placing time limits on welfare benefits just one year before that.

Bush, according to his Web site, supports reauthorization of welfare reforms, but offers no other specifics. His primary poverty initiative is his support of faith-based organizations getting government funding "without discrimination." He has become known for his proposals to shift government-funded assistance programs to religious institutions. This has caused some controversy because of the blurring of the lines separating church and state, but is favored by religious non-profits that want to help the poor using religious teachings.

Finally, Bush has received much criticism for his "Healthy Marriage Plan" that uses $1.5 billion in federal and state funds to encourage welfare mothers to marry. The proposal also increases work requirements for parents on welfare—requiring 40 hours of work per week—while it cuts child-care funding for 300,000 lower-income kids across the nation. This would likely cause the states to spend a massive amount on "Workfare" programs to meet increased requirements. This plan encourages women to get married, but not educated, and many critics say it pays them to stay in bad, perhaps violent, marriages.