Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Often-Maligned Safety Net Gets Results
Social safety net programs demeaned by the far right and routinely threatened with budget cuts have nearly halved the number of poor Americans while ensuring that millions of hungry children get food and health care, according to a new series of reports from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
"Evidence is strong and persuasive that the low-income programs, while not perfect, have made major progress toward goals shared by Americans across the political spectrum, such as preventing hunger and destitution, protecting children's health, and rewarding low-paid work," said Robert Greenstein, the center's executive director.
While the reports acknowledge problems with the programs and recommend fixes, Greenstein said that without such benefits, "ours would be a harsher and less compassionate society with more extreme hardship, especially among children and people who are elderly or have disabilities."
From food stamps to Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit, government programs have helped lift 27 million people out of poverty, and have reduced the severity of poverty for millions of others, the center finds.
Federal food and nutrition programs "have largely eliminated severe hunger in the United States, which was a serious problem as recently as the 1960s," the center says in its press release.
Medicaid, Supplemental Social Security and the state Children's Health Insurance Program have had similar success. Further reports from the center, which include state-by-state data, will focus on other safety net programs.
Writing about the reports this week, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne said it's time for progressives to use the data to "go on offense" against conservatives' anti-government tirades.
"The point is clear," Dionne wrote. "Without government's exertions, many more Americans would be poor. This, in turn, means that Congress's efforts to pay for the Bush tax cuts by trimming some of these programs, particularly food stamps and Medicaid, are, in a word, unconscionable."
To read more about the reports, go to www.cbpp.org . Dionne's July 19 column can be found at www.washingtonpost.com.
"Evidence is strong and persuasive that the low-income programs, while not perfect, have made major progress toward goals shared by Americans across the political spectrum, such as preventing hunger and destitution, protecting children's health, and rewarding low-paid work," said Robert Greenstein, the center's executive director.
While the reports acknowledge problems with the programs and recommend fixes, Greenstein said that without such benefits, "ours would be a harsher and less compassionate society with more extreme hardship, especially among children and people who are elderly or have disabilities."
From food stamps to Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit, government programs have helped lift 27 million people out of poverty, and have reduced the severity of poverty for millions of others, the center finds.
Federal food and nutrition programs "have largely eliminated severe hunger in the United States, which was a serious problem as recently as the 1960s," the center says in its press release.
Medicaid, Supplemental Social Security and the state Children's Health Insurance Program have had similar success. Further reports from the center, which include state-by-state data, will focus on other safety net programs.
Writing about the reports this week, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne said it's time for progressives to use the data to "go on offense" against conservatives' anti-government tirades.
"The point is clear," Dionne wrote. "Without government's exertions, many more Americans would be poor. This, in turn, means that Congress's efforts to pay for the Bush tax cuts by trimming some of these programs, particularly food stamps and Medicaid, are, in a word, unconscionable."
To read more about the reports, go to www.cbpp.org . Dionne's July 19 column can be found at www.washingtonpost.com.