A War on the Poor<\/a> by Paul Krugman in The New York Times.<\/p>\nThe Text:<\/strong> John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, has done some surprising things lately. First, he did an end run around his state\u2019s Legislature \u2014 controlled by his own party \u2014 to proceed with the federally funded expansion of Medicaid that is an important piece of Obamacare. Then, defending his action, he let loose on his political allies, declaring, \u201cI\u2019m concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor. That, if you\u2019re poor, somehow you\u2019re shiftless and lazy.\u201d<\/p>\nObviously Mr. Kasich isn\u2019t the first to make this observation. But the fact that it\u2019s coming from a Republican in good standing (although maybe not anymore), indeed someone who used to be known as a conservative firebrand, is telling. Republican hostility toward the poor and unfortunate has now reached such a fever pitch that the party doesn\u2019t really stand for anything else \u2014 and only willfully blind observers can fail to see that reality.<\/p>\n
The big question is why. But, first, let\u2019s talk a bit more about what\u2019s eating the right.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I still sometimes see pundits claiming that the Tea Party movement is basically driven by concerns about budget deficits. That\u2019s delusional. Read the founding rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC: There\u2019s nary a mention of deficits. Instead, it\u2019s a tirade against the possibility that the government might help \u201closers\u201d avoid foreclosure. Or read transcripts from Rush Limbaugh or other right-wing talk radio hosts. There\u2019s not much about fiscal responsibility, but there\u2019s a lot about how the government is rewarding the lazy and undeserving.<\/p>\n
Republicans in leadership positions try to modulate their language a bit, but it\u2019s a matter more of tone than substance. They\u2019re still clearly passionate about making sure that the poor and unlucky get as little help as possible, that \u2014 as Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, put it \u2014 the safety net is becoming \u201ca hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency.\u201d And Mr. Ryan\u2019s budget proposals involve savage cuts in safety-net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.<\/p>\n
All of this hostility to the poor has culminated in the truly astonishing refusal of many states to participate in the Medicaid expansion. Bear in mind that the federal government would pay for this expansion, and that the money thus spent would benefit hospitals and the local economy as well as the direct recipients. But a majority of Republican-controlled state governments are, it turns out, willing to pay a large economic and fiscal price in order to ensure that aid doesn\u2019t reach the poor.<\/p>\n
The thing is, it wasn\u2019t always this way. Go back for a moment to 1936, when Alf Landon received the Republican nomination for president. In many ways, Landon\u2019s acceptance speech previewed themes taken up by modern conservatives. He lamented the incompleteness of economic recovery and the persistence of high unemployment, and he attributed the economy\u2019s lingering weakness to excessive government intervention and the uncertainty he claimed it created.<\/p>\n
But he also said this: \u201cOut of this Depression has come, not only the problem of recovery but also the equally grave problem of caring for the unemployed until recovery is attained. Their relief at all times is a matter of plain duty. We of our Party pledge that this obligation will never be neglected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can you imagine a modern Republican nominee saying such a thing? Not in a party committed to the view that unemployed workers have it too easy, that they\u2019re so coddled by unemployment insurance and food stamps that they have no incentive to go out there and get a job.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s this all about? One reason, the sociologist Daniel Little suggested in a recent essay, is market ideology: If the market is always right, then people who end up poor must deserve to be poor. I\u2019d add that some leading Republicans are, in their minds, acting out adolescent libertarian fantasies. \u201cIt\u2019s as if we\u2019re living in an Ayn Rand novel right now,\u201d declared Paul Ryan in 2009.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s also, as Mr. Little says, the stain that won\u2019t go away: race.<\/p>\n
In a much-cited recent memo, Democracy Corps, a Democratic-leaning public opinion research organization, reported on the results of focus groups held with members of various Republican factions. They found the Republican base \u201cvery conscious of being white in a country that is increasingly minority\u201d \u2014 and seeing the social safety net both as something that helps Those People, not people like themselves, and binds the rising nonwhite population to the Democratic Party. And, yes, the Medicaid expansion many states are rejecting would disproportionately have helped poor blacks.<\/p>\n
So there is indeed a war on the poor, coinciding with and deepening the pain from a troubled economy. And that war is now the central, defining issue of American politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Article: A War on the Poor by Paul Krugman in The New York Times. The Text: John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, has done some surprising things lately. First, he did an end run around his state\u2019s Legislature \u2014 controlled by his own party \u2014 to proceed with the federally funded expansion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"War](\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/war-on-poor.jpg\")
<\/p>\n