New York Times (now that they've busted the bank!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/opinion/26fri3.html?hp
The nation’s poorest citizens are already suffering some of the harshest effects of the economic decline, most notoriously with a 60 percent increase in children forced into “food insecurity.” That’s bureaucratese for families driven to skipping meals. There were more than 690,000 youngsters who didn’t have enough to eat last year. There were 783,000 meal-skipping seniors among the 36 million Americans found to be chronically lacking adequate food, according to government data.
This year, the hunger struggle has worsened. The number of citizens turning to food stamps — a clear measure of fast-rising poverty — reached a record 31.6 million in September, up more than four million in a year.
It’s no surprise, then, that a politically acclaimed reform of the 1990s — “the end to welfare as we know it” in favor of “workfare” — is fast fraying at the edges. States are reporting a surge in applicants for the limited short-term cash aid allowed under the workfare rules. And the program’s emphasis on shunting the poor toward low-paying, start-up jobs is becoming increasingly pointless as the job market ossifies. In a sampling of applicants for help in one hard-hit Florida county, The Washington Post found that 2 out of 5 were newcomers at seeking the government safety net. Many had recently slid from the middle class because of the subprime-mortgage debacle and rising unemployment.
It’s important that the most hungry, poor and direly troubled Americans not be denied a proper place in line with the financial moguls, auto executives and others pleading for taxpayer help. Most immediately, a temporary increase in food-stamp benefits is needed. It fits logically in the next stimulus package, for each dollar spent on food stamps generates $1.84 in economic activity.
Beyond that, the workfare program’s contingency fund for extending the poor emergency help during recessions seems certain to run out of money next year. Congress must deal with that. And there already are sensible calls to repair workfare as we know it, by allowing more cash assistance and easing mandates for work, at least until there’s work again.
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