Thirty-seven million Americans live below the official poverty line. Millions more struggle each month to pay for basic necessities, or run out of savings when they lose their jobs or face health emergencies. Poverty imposes enormous costs on society. The lost potential of children raised in poor households, the lower productivity and earnings of poor adults, the poor health, increased crime, and broken neighborhoods all hurt our nation. Persistent childhood poverty is estimated to cost our nation $500 billion each year, or about four percent of the nation's gross domestic product. In a world of increasing global competition, we cannot afford to squander these human resources.
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1. Raise and index the minimum wage to half the average hourly wage. At $5.15, the federal minimum wage is at its lowest level in real terms since 1956. The federal minimum wage was once 50 percent of the average wage but is now 30 percent of that wage. Congress should restore the minimum wage to 50 percent of the average wage, about $8.40 an hour in 2006. Doing so would help nearly 5 million poor workers and nearly 10 million other low-income workers.
2. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. As an earnings supplement for low-income working families, the EITC raises incomes and helps families build assets. The Child Tax Credit provides a tax credit of up to $1,000 per child, but provides no help to the poorest families. We recommend tripling the EITC for childless workers and expanding help to larger working families. We recommend making the Child Tax Credit available to all low- and moderate-income families. Doing so would move as many as 5 million people out of poverty.
3. Promote unionization by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act. The Employee Free Choice Act would require employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers signs cards authorizing union representation and establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights. The increased union representation made possible by the Act would lead to better jobs and less poverty for American workers.
4. Guarantee child care assistance to low-income families and promote early education for all. We propose that the federal and state governments guarantee child care help to families with incomes below about $40,000 a year, with expanded tax help to higher-earning families. At the same time, states should be encouraged to improve the quality of early education and broaden access for all children. Our child care expansion would raise employment among low-income parents and help nearly 3 million parents and children escape poverty.
5. Create 2 million new "opportunity" housing vouchers, and promote equitable development in and around central cities.
6. Connect disadvantaged and disconnected youth with school and work.
7. Simplify and expand Pell Grants and make higher education accessible to residents of each state.
8. Help former prisoners find stable employment and reintegrate into their communities.
9. Ensure equity for low-wage workers in the Unemployment Insurance system.
10. Modernize means-tested benefits programs to develop a coordinated system that helps workers and families. A well-functioning safety net should help people get into or return to work and ensure a decent level of living for those who cannot work or are temporarily between jobs. Our current system fails to do so. We recommend that governments at all levels simplify and improve benefits access for working families and improve services to individuals with disabilities. The Food Stamp Program should be strengthened to improve benefits, eligibility, and access. And the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program should be reformed to shift its focus from cutting caseloads to helping needy families find sustainable employment.
11. Reduce the high costs of being poor and increase access to financial services.
12. Expand and simplify the Saver's Credit to encourage saving for education, homeownership, and retirement.
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ZASHAGALKA, RN
3,322 Posts
That is your choice. You have no right, however, to use the coercive power of gov't to impose your choice upon others. The simple act of attempting to do so makes gov't the grab bag of power. And, it makes gov't evil.
You don't advocate convincing your fellow man of your viewpoints. You advocate using the power of gov't to bully your viewpoints upon those that disagree with you, philosophically. If you can only get your point of view passed, then everybody will have no choice but to go along. You even say this directly: that you are disappointed with the amount of charity you see around you (even though Americans are the most charitable people in the world) and so, you are in favor of a gov't decree for what people will not willingly do by choice. There's a word for that, and it's tyranny.
This is not me being discivil in this debate: it is the terms of the debate. The only way to make gov't as much a power 'for the greater good' as the gov't you wish to impose is to make it a gov't that has the power to do lots of things that fall well short of 'the greater good'. Power is not neutral; it is a tool. Gov't cannot be trusted with such tools. At least, not gov'ts of free men.
FTR, the founding fathers created a republic EXACTLY to avoid that kind of majority rules, mob rule. The checks are supposed to be in place to prevent just this kind of manipulation of gov't. Our framers sought determinedly to create a gov't in a straightjacket when it comes to the exercise of power against its citizens. That straightjacket is what allowed America to take its place as the pre-eminent world power.
If you can use the gov't to beat down others with YOUR choices, then others can use the power of gov't to beat YOU down with THEIR choices.
The result: a very polarized gov't where it matters very much which party is in charge.
The gov't has no right or business to be an arbiter of any of this. Point of fact, the gov't is holding more people down in poverty, today, than the free market could liberate FROM poverty, if given a chance.
I don't share your faith in gov't. I hold faith with the common man, once liberated from the shackles of gov't. Gov't is a tool, and it has historically and inherently been a tool for tyranny.
I would rather the power of gov't be shackled than for me to be shackled TO the power of gov't. I guess it's a different philosophy.
But, Thomas Jefferson summed it up best in a quote I used earlier in this thread: a gov't free to use power for 'the greater good' is a gov't free to use power for all kinds of evil. In fact, isn't that EXACTLY what you think about the Bush Administration?
The Bush Administration is EXACTLY the gov't you have asked for: one with all sorts of power over you and your life. You just didn't count on the votes for the leader of the gov't of your choosing to be so consistently against those that share "YOUR" beliefs.
Oh, I know: 2008 will be different. No, it won't. No matter who wins, it's more of the same.
~faith,
Timothy.