[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] > > The worst is yet to come > > THE NEW YORK TIMES > > November 19, 2001 > > The Vanishing Act > By BOB HERBERT > > > The U.S. unemployment rate rose sharply in October, to 5.4 percent, the > biggest jump in five years. > > In New York, which is suffering the effects of a terrorist attack in the > midst of an economic downturn, some 80,000 jobs were lost in October, a > stunning decline in a month that can usually be counted upon for job growth. > > Worse is to come. We will soon be hearing about the terrible difficulties > jobless men and women will encounter when, after tumbling out of the labor > market, they look around for a helping hand that is not there. > > Seldom in the last half-century has the U.S. been so poorly prepared to > assist individuals and families struggling with the effects of a recession. > Example: the unemployment insurance system, which was established to ease > the pain of temporary joblessness, covers less than 40 percent of the people > who are out of work. Example: the food stamp program, which was supposed to > slam the door on hunger in the world's greatest nation (and which once > served 90 percent of eligible families), now serves just 60 percent of the > poverty- stricken folks who qualify for help. > > And then there's welfare. In the summer of 1996 Bill Clinton signed the > so-called reform bill ending "welfare as we know it." Among other things, it > imposed a five-year lifetime limit on welfare assistance to needy families. > > The potentially tragic consequences of that legislation were concealed for a > while by the extraordinary economic boom in the last half of the decade. But > Daniel Patrick Moynihan and others had warned all along of the dire > implications of ending the guarantee of federal help to the nation's poorest > families. Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund noted that > supporters of the welfare bill assumed there would be "no recession in the > next decade, which is unprecedented." > > Now, with the good times behind us, we are about to see what happens when > you remove the safety net that was designed to protect families doing an > economic high-wire act. For an awful lot of distressed families, the end of > welfare is coinciding with an economic recession exacerbated by acts of > terror. > > In an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington last week, Deepak > Bhargava, director of a coalition of groups known as the National Campaign > for Jobs and Income Support, said, "We now have a welfare system in which > time limits will be hitting in a majority of states at precisely the time > when the labor markets are the weakest and when families are in the most > trouble." > > More than 120,000 families have already lost their benefits or had them > reduced because of time limits on welfare. The lifetime limits kick in at > different times in different states. Between now and next July we'll see > welfare benefits exhausted for large numbers of families in at least 26 > states. > > Mr. Bhargava, whose coalition was formed by more than 1,000 organizations > fighting on behalf of poor and working families in 40 states, said that by > early next year the U.S. will be faced with huge numbers of families in > desperate trouble because their welfare benefits have been cut off and there > is no work for them. > > Government officials who expect poor and working families to sort of roll > over and quietly accept their dismal economic fate may get surprised this > time around. There is a growing sense of militancy among struggling families > in the United States. Pushing people to their limits will produce that. > > Groups representing poor and working families are better organized and can > be expected to make a lot more noise than they made in the mid-90's when > welfare reform became a mantra. The federal welfare law has to be > re-authorized next year and a big fight over its most onerous elements is > all but guaranteed. Policy makers can also expect long and sometimes bitter > fights at both the federal and state level over proposals to increase the > minimum wage, to establish "living wages," to expand health insurance > coverage, and to extend unemployment benefits to low-wage, part-time, > temporary and other workers who don't presently qualify for them. > > The cynicism that resulted in millionaire senators cheering the passage of > welfare reform is now being confronted by the cold reality of a > take-no-prisoners recession that threatens to leave millions of American > families jobless, and all but helpless as well. > > > > Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/19/opinion/19HERB.html > > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > ADVERTISEMENT > > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Your use of Yahoo! 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