Miner Queries | Cherie Miner

 

Amidst all the hullaballoo surrounding the election, policy work plods on. So, I noticed House Speaker Paul Ryan is rolling out the latest version of his economic agenda called “A Better Way.” But is it?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren described it on her Facebook page: “Speaker Paul Ryan just announced the Republicans’ ‘poverty agenda’ – and it looks more like an agenda for creating poverty than reducing it. In fact, if you look closely, Paul Ryan’s new plan is just a shiny repackaging of Paul Ryan’s old plan: Keep huge tax breaks and special loopholes open for billionaires and giant corporations, gut the rules on Wall Street, then say there’s no money for Social Security, for Medicare, for education, or anything else that will help struggling working families.”

As Warren states and initial reports reveal, the plan doesn’t offer much that’s new. Like previous plans, it emphasizes repealing and replacing Obamacare, tougher requirements for those seeking work to receive assistance, and block grants to the states to operate anti-poverty programs. We only need look to Kansas to see how well these policies work. 

In a report on Think Progress, Aviva Shen points out that only three months ago Ryan apologized for calling poor people “takers.” She writes: “Despite the change of heart about his rhetoric, Ryan is apparently sticking to his guns on policy ... Ryan wants to reinstate a system that forces people to spend 20 hours a week looking for work or lose their benefits by an arbitrary deadline. The work requirements Ryan espouses do little to further motivate people in desperate situations to find stable jobs; instead, they tend to punish people who are genuinely struggling to find jobs and education. Many types of education and job training don’t qualify under the requirements, and even unstable, low-paying jobs can kick people off welfare before they’re actually self-sufficient, which then restarts the cycle of poverty.”

This is not new, and it’s certainly not better. And even Speaker Ryan says on his web page announcement for A Better Way: “The war on poverty is a stalemate at best. So we can keep doing the same things and getting the same results.” 

How much rebranding will we endure before we stand up and demand real change? Ryan’s plan simply re-markets the corporate capitalists’ plan to cut their taxes and gut benefits for people. Ryan and congressional Republicans are simply dressing it up to sell it.

Before Ryan’s announcement, Tiana Gaines-Turner, who testified before a congressional committee on poverty two years ago and the only poor expert witness, wrote an open letter to Speaker Ryan. She said: “Should any person in America end up homeless for taking care of a sick child?

“As you may remember from my testimony, my husband and I work hard to provide for our family. I work at a community recreation center on afterschool programming for children. In recent years, my husband has worked the deli at a grocery store, overnight at a meat-packing plant, and as a security guard. He has endured two-hour commutes, worked night shifts, held multiple jobs at the same time—made the kinds of sacrifices a parent makes to try to lift up a family. Yet despite our hard work, we’ve remained in poverty.”

Instead of passing policy to help working families, Congress has blamed them. It’s time to hold congressional do-nothings accountable.

 

Cherie Miner is a local parent, community volunteer, freelance writer and artist. In a former life, she was a corporate writer and public relations professional. Contact her at news@redoakexpress.com or on Facebook.


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