{"id":50621,"date":"2012-01-30T09:37:52","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T14:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=50621"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:07:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:07:36","slug":"gop-myths-on-poverty-and-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/01\/30\/gop-myths-on-poverty-and-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Myths On Poverty And Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> The Week in Poverty: Kids, Jobs and GOP Myths<\/a> by Greg Kaufmann in The Nation.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> This Week in Poverty: the impact of stress and early intervention on poor kids, the state of children in America, and the GOP breaks out some Golden Oldie myths about poor people, black people and a lack of work ethic\u2026 But first:<\/p>\n

The Vital Statistics<\/em><\/p>\n

US poverty (less than $22,300 for a family of four): 46 million people, 15.1 percent.<\/p>\n

Kids in poverty: 16.4 million, 22 percent of all kids.<\/p>\n

Deep poverty (less than $11,157 for a family of four): 20.5 million people, 6.7 percent of population.<\/p>\n

Impact of public policy, 2010: without government assistance, poverty twice as high\u2014nearly 30 percent.<\/p>\n

Impact of public policy, 1964\u20131973: poverty rate fell by 43 percent.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Number of Americans \u201cdeep poor,\u201d \u201cpoor\u201d or \u201cnear poor\u201d: 100 million, or 1 in 3.<\/p>\n

GOP: Welcome to South Carolina<\/p>\n

Kids 8 and younger living in poverty: 28 percent, tied for fifth worst in the US (including DC).<\/p>\n

People living in poverty: 18.2 percent, eighth worst.<\/p>\n

High school graduation rate (2008): 61.9 percent, third worst.<\/p>\n

Unemployment rate (avg. month, 2010): 11.2 percent, sixth worst.<\/p>\n

On Children and Poverty<\/em><\/p>\n

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has an outstanding op-ed on the link between \u201ctoxic stress\u201d in young children and their educational, health and social outcomes later in life.<\/p>\n

Research shows how pliable the brain is in the prenatal and early years\u2014how brain architecture can be changed for better or worse and then is increasingly difficult to modify over time. (For more info, check out these three videos from Harvard\u2019s Center on the Developing Child.)<\/p>\n

Kristof writes that parental affection and presence are key since \u201cthe stress emerges when a child senses persistent threats but no protector.\u201d Early intervention programs also make a huge difference. The Nurse-Family Partnership does home visits with poor women who are pregnant for the first time, until the child reaches age 2. Studies show that at age 6 participating kids are one-third as likely to have behavioral or intellectual problems as kids who weren\u2019t enrolled, and half as likely to be arrested at age 15.<\/p>\n

The American Academy of Pediatrics concludes, \u201cProtecting young children from adversity is a promising, science-based strategy to address many of the most persistent and costly problems facing contemporary society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristof\u2019s article made this reader wonder how we as a society help parents \u201cprotect young people from adversity.\u201d One important question: where will the good jobs come from considering our decimated manufacturing sector? It\u2019s tough to be a constant, protective presence for your children\u2014especially as a single parent\u2014when you\u2019re working two or even three low-wage jobs that don\u2019t pay enough to lift your family out of poverty. It\u2019s also tough to provide adequate childcare when only one in seven families that qualifies for childcare assistance actually receives it. Finally, we don\u2019t help parents on welfare when job-training and education aren\u2019t allowed to count toward their work requirement, making it even more difficult for them to obtain better jobs to support their families.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s Economic Well-Being Deteriorating<\/em><\/p>\n

A recent report from Brookings Institution Fellow Julia Isaacs\u2014commissioned by First Focus\u2014suggests that the recession continues to take a heavy toll on children and families, including an increase in 2011 in both child poverty (the official stats don\u2019t come out until September) and the number of children receiving food stamps.<\/p>\n

More than 1 in 4 American children now receive food stamps (SNAP)\u2014that\u2019s nearly 21 million kids, and 2 million more than last year. The program is open to individuals with incomes of less than 130 percent of poverty\u2014about $2000 per month for a family of three.<\/p>\n

Using state-specific data on unemployment rates and SNAP caseloads, Isaacs also predicts that child poverty increased in 2011 by 340,000 children, which would raise the child poverty rate by about a half percentage point. (Isaac writes that her prediction might be a conservative one\u2014her colleagues have estimated a rise of as much as 2 percentage points to 24 percent child poverty.)<\/p>\n

Finally, 6.5 million children were living with unemployed parents during an average month in 2011, 3 million with a parent looking for work six months or longer. The report observes that poverty and a parent being unemployed both affect a child\u2019s development in the short-term\u2014including psychological stress and academic performance, and increased incidences of abuse and neglect\u2014and in diminished career opportunities and earnings as an adult over the long-term.<\/p>\n

A Little Help From Obama<\/em><\/p>\n

When President Obama proposed his American Jobs Act back in September, he included $1.5 billion toward summer jobs and year-round employment for low-income youth ages 16\u201324. That was important, considering that just 49 percent of that age group was employed in July, the month when youth employment usually peaks, including only 34.6 percent of African-American youth and 42.9 percent of Hispanic youth.<\/p>\n

The bill was dead-on-arrival given a GOP majority in the House and a filibustering Senate. So now President Obama is trying to use the bully pulpit to secure commitments from government, businesses and non-profits to hire \u201cOpportunity Youth\u201d\u2014the 6.7 million young people ages 16-24 who are unemployed, not enrolled in school, and do not have a college degree. (They comprise 17 percent of the 39 million 16\u201324 year olds in the nation.) So far, employers have responded with 70,000 paid summer jobs and 110,000 unpaid summer or year-round work opportunities. The administration\u2019s goal is to reach 250,000 jobs by summer, including 100,000 paid jobs and internships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good start in terms of focusing some attention on an issue that desperately needs it\u2014before we get into the summer,\u201d says Desmond Brown, consultant to Half in Ten, a national campaign to reduce poverty by 50 percent over the next ten years. \u201cWe still need a lot more job training and work opportunities for low-income and less educated workers, but given the political landscape, this is a good kick-off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House is making the case that investing in these jobs saves money over the long-term. It estimates $93 billion in lost tax revenue and higher government spending to support these 6.7 million disconnected youth in 2011 alone. Without intervention, over their lifetime there will be \u201ca $1.6 trillion burden to meet the increased needs and lost revenue from this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

An additional note on how job opportunities like these can reduce poverty: last year, Half in Ten made a significant finding that only 4 percent of households with more than one earner are in poverty as compared to 24 percent with a single earner. While conservatives seize on that data to say that marriage is the way out of poverty\u2014it isn\u2019t the only path. Summer and year-round programs aimed at connecting disadvantaged youth to education and work experience are critical in this regard.<\/p>\n

GOP Would-Be Presidents Peddling Myths<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe African-American community should demand pay checks and not be satisfied with food stamps,\u201d said Newt Gingrich; \u201cI don\u2019t want to make black people\u2019s lives better by giving them somebody else\u2019s money,\u201d declared Rick Santorum; and \u201cWe are\u2026dragged down by a resentment of success,\u201d offered Mitt Romney.<\/p>\n

New York Times columnist Charles Blow does a superb job debunking myths\u2014explaining that, for example, \u201cthe largest group of SNAP beneficiaries is by far non-Hispanic whites\u201d and \u201cmost SNAP participants are either too old or too young to work\u201d\u2014and also lays out the GOP\u2019s use over the years of a \u201chistorical mythology which evokes the black bogyman, who saps the money from the whites who earn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joy Moses, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, brings a dose of reality to Santorum\u2019s rhetoric as well. She points out that \u201cmost people receiving public benefits aren’t collecting somebody else\u2019s money, but their own\u201d in the form of Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment Insurance\u2014programs that beneficiaries and their employers have paid for with taxes taken out of their paychecks. Also, unemployment insurance and TANF (cash welfare for families)\u2014which represent just 4 percent of federal spending\u2014pay such small amounts and are time-limited so that people couldn\u2019t live off of them even if they wanted to. (TANF benefits don\u2019t raise a family\u2019s income above 50 percent of the poverty line in any state!)<\/p>\n

As for Romney, he seems to be onto something: the cause of the economic collapse, a shrinking middle-class and rising poverty is that we simply drag ourselves down due to success envy. It\u2019s got nothing to do with economic mobility, low wages, lack of access to higher education, unequal public schools, a deteriorating safety net, gutted financial regulation, etc. In fact, at bedtime tonight I told my children that some day they too can sell toxic securities that they themselves bet against, watch people\u2019s lifetime savings go down the tubes and be rewarded with mega-bonuses for doing it\u2014and be proud!<\/p>\n

Quote of the Week<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRace is usually less about facts than historical mythology, which evokes the black bogyman, who saps the money from the whites who earn it. Ever since blacks first arrived on these shores in chains, they have been perceived as lazy and dependent on whites\u2014first as slaves, and then as \u2018entitled\u2019 citizens.\u201d \u2014Charles Blow <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: The Week in Poverty: Kids, Jobs and GOP Myths by Greg Kaufmann in The Nation. The Text: This Week in Poverty: the impact of stress and early intervention on poor kids, the state of children in America, and the GOP breaks out some Golden Oldie myths about poor people, black people and a […]<\/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":"\nGOP Myths On Poverty And Kids - Prose Before Hos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Article: The Week in Poverty: Kids, Jobs and GOP Myths by Greg Kaufmann in The Nation. 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