Manic, Chill

Remember when Scott Walker said that all of his attempts at union-busting and getting rid of collective-bargaining rights were necessary in order to fix Wisconsin’s economy?

If dead last in job creation is what he meant, then something tells me that the word “fix” doesn’t mean what he thinks it means.

(Source: jsonline.com)

Governor of Pennsylvania Turns His Back On Food Stamp Recipients

In a stunning turn of events, Republican Governor Tom Corbett has decided to balance the state’s budget on the backs of the state’s poorest citizens.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare has announced that, as of May 1, citizens under the age of 60, with more than $2,000 in savings and/or other assets, will no longer qualify for the state’s food stamp program. Citizens over 60 will have a maximum asset limit of $3,250.

When questioned about the changes, a spokesperson for the DPW claimed that the asset test was designed to prevent “people with resources are not taking advantage of the food-stamp program.”

from the Philadelphia City Paper:

Eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” is an old and recurrent refrain from those who seek to dismantle the country’s social welfare system. But it’s a cynical ruse: 30 percent of those eligible for food stamps in Pennsylvania don’t receive them. According to federal data, the Inquirer notes, Pennsylvania has a fraud rate of just one-tenth of 1 percent.

Conservatives frequently bristle at the idea that poor people might have nice things while receiving public assistance (“they have a television on welfare!”). But Pennsylvania will now create the most bizarre of disincentives: dissuading poor people from saving.

“We all know that families need to save money to get off government assistance and achieve self-sufficiency,” according to a press release from Carey Morgan, Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. “So it’s not only inhumane, but counterproductive to force people to drain their savings before they can get any help. Someone with less than $2,000 in the bank would easily be wiped out by one visit to the emergency room.”

The City of Philadelphia has condemned the move, as have local retailers who stand to lose business from food stamp recipients. The food stamp program is a major economic stimulus: every dollar of public funds spent on food stamps grows GDP by $1.73.

For more information, the Philadelphia Inquirer has an in-depth look at the new asset test, including an explanation of the state’s current program, along with comments from various people and organizations that will be impacted by the changes.

As you can imagine, the new plan has not been well-received by the majority of Pennsylvania’s citizens, local/state lawmakers, or watchdog groups both in and out-of-state. Unsurprisingly, a petition is already working its way around the web, asking for the signatures of anyone who’d like to see Corbett resign from office.

(image courtesy of Lehigh Valley Live)

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(Source: crooksandliars.com)

The Impact of State Income Taxes on Low Income Families in 2010

from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

A number of states continue to tax the income of poor families — in some cases, very poor families.   While states have made significant progress in this area over time, that progress ground to a halt in 2010, as fiscal problems constrained states’ ability to advance targeted tax reductions.  Moreover, some states have raised taxes on the working poor while cutting taxes for corporations and wealthy residents.   Instead of undermining efforts to reduce the tax liabilities of poor families, states should preserve the progress they have made and build upon it when their budget outlook improves.

Poverty and Financial Distress Would Have Been Substantially Worse in 2010 Without Government Action, New Census Data Shows

from the CBPP:

Six temporary federal initiatives enacted in 2009 and 2010 to bolster the economy by lifting consumers’ incomes and purchases kept nearly 7 million Americans out of poverty in 2010, under an alternative measure of poverty that takes into account the impact of government benefit programs and taxes.  These initiatives — three new or expanded tax credits, two enhancements of unemployment insurance, and an expansion of benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps) — were part of the 2009 Recovery Act.  Congress subsequently extended or expanded some of them.

To gauge the impacts of these initiatives on poverty, analysts cannot use the official poverty measure because it counts only cash income and does not take refundable tax credits, SNAP benefits, and other non-cash assistance into account.  Therefore, we use a poverty measure that adopts recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and that most experts prefer to the traditional poverty measure.  Using the NAS measure to analyze newly released Census data for 2010, we find that the six Recovery Act initiatives kept 6.9 million people above the poverty line in 2010:

• Expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) kept 1.6 million people out of poverty.
• The Making Work Pay tax credit, which expired at the end of 2010, kept another 1.5 million people out of poverty.
• Expansions in the duration and level of unemployment insurance benefits kept 3.4 million people out of poverty.
• Expansions in SNAP benefits kept 1.0 million people out of poverty.

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