Search

Examines why a rising number of people in the U.S. live in poverty. Role of Hurricane Katrina in highlighting issues of poverty, race and class; Question of whether there will be a change in public perceptions; How, after a decade of improvement in the 1990s, poverty in America is getting worse; Observation that the poverty rate is the highest in the developed world; Attitude of President George W. Bush regarding poverty; Information on the poor, including the high number of poor African-Americans; Debate over the causes of poverty; Issue of low wages for workers of all ages; Factors that make poverty worse, including cultural habits and isolation; Topic of discrimination; Comments of African-American Senator Barack Obama; Outlook.

Analyzes the U.S. President George W. Bush tax cuts. Problem of the alternative minimum tax (AMT); Contention that there is a hidden agenda behind the tax cuts; Issue of the ultimate effect of Bush's program; Implications of the tax policy for American tax filers; Views of economists; Tax formulas; Scenarios; Observation that higher-income people tend to get bigger percentage cuts in their total tax burden from Bush's cuts than lower-income people; Dividends and capital gains; Overview of presidential candidate John Kerry's proposal; Issue of tax reform.

The author argues that the United States, as the only remaining global power, is attempting to subjugate--politically and economically--all other nations and peoples. New Imperialism is already upon us. It's a remodeled, streamlined version of what we once knew. For the first time in history, a single empire with an arsenal of weapons that could obliterate the world in an afternoon has complete, unipolar, economic and military hegemony. It uses different weapons to break open different markets. There isn't a country on God's earth that is not caught in the cross-hairs of the American cruise missile and the IMF checkbook. Argentina's the model if you want to be the poster boy of neoliberal capitalism, Iraq if you're the black sheep. Poor countries that are geopolitically of strategic value to Empire, or have a "market" of any size, or infrastructure that can be privatized, or, God forbid, natural resources of value-oil, gold, diamonds, cobalt, coal--must do as they're told or become military targets. Those with the greatest reserves of natural wealth are most at risk. Unless they surrender their resources willingly to the corporate machine, civil unrest will be fomented or war will be waged. Our resistance has to begin with a refusal to accept the legitimacy of the US occupation of Iraq. It means acting to make it materially impossible for Empire to achieve its aims.

The author comments on the privatization of state agencies in Texas, and asks whether the reforms Texas will serve as model for the United States as a whole. The state legislature passed a bill this past May that will result in the privatization of eligibility determination for TANF (the program that replaced welfare), food stamps and Medicaid--fundamentally transforming the way social services are delivered in Texas. In some ways, the conservative attack on the union and the public sector in Texas today is a microcosm of the assault in the country as a whole. While business organizations and the corporations that stand to benefit lobby successfully for privatization and budget cuts, tens of thousands of state workers lose health insurance, and the social programs that make life bearable for the desperately poor are downsized. But more is at stake than particular programs and specific benefits. The very existence of the public sector--controlled by people who are democratically accountable, run by workers 'who aren't in thrall to the Dow Jones--hangs in the balance. The choice is between charity, with its baseline assumption of unequal power and resources, and the expansive vision of social democracy. The privatization bill that passed the legislature early this past summer will dramatically change the way that social services are delivered in Texas. Since the way that a private company makes money with a state contract is by running the operation for less than the state pays, companies face tremendous incentives to cut wages and benefits. Are today's developments in Texas a forecast for the nation tomorrow?

Focuses on the lack of attention paid to poor people during the political campaigning of President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in the 2004 United States election. Reference to a 2003 Census Bureau report stating that 35.9 million U.S. citizens live in poverty; Increase of poverty under the Bush Administration; Focus of Kerry's campaign on working families and the middle class; Growth of financial insecurity among middle class citizens; Reference to the low turnout rate among low-income voters in the 2000 election; Suggestion that poor voters feel alienated from those in power; Discussion of Bush's faith-based initiative, which grants federal funds to religious organizations so they can provide social services to the poor; Reference to an essay entitled "The Silence of the Liberals," by Jason DeParle, in "The Washington Monthly"; Reference to the book "American Dream," by DeParle; Criticism of Alphonso Jackson, the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The author argues that the economic policies of U.S. President George W. Bush have done little to help poor and unemployed Americans. The President boasts that his tax cuts are working and we're on the right track. But is it time to celebrate? More than 3 million private-sector jobs have been lost since Bush took office. Nine million people are out of work, wages and salaries are stagnant or down, healthcare costs have increased to staggering double-digit rates, retirement savings have been ravaged by the stock-market meltdown, school budgets are taking severe hits, tuition at public universities is soaring and personal bankruptcies and debt are at an all-time high. Paying for health insurance is becoming a problem for more than just people living on low or fixed incomes, with many hospitals and neighborhood clinics saying that middle-class people are now joining the poor in seeking their care. More than 12 million American children live in poverty, and indeed, the United States has the worst child-poverty rate of all the industrialized countries. The ranks of the hungry are also increasing. Economic realities on Main Street, not Wall Street, haven't stopped the White House from trumpeting "mission accomplished" when it comes to our supposed economic recovery. The real "bottom line" taking into account the 3.4 percent gain in population since March 2001, shows that the economy is 6.9 million jobs short of where it would be if payroll levels had remained steady.

The author argues that the Bush Administration's plans to introduce measures aimed at controlling costs at college and universities will make it more difficult for students from low-income families to complete degrees. Since taking office, George W. Bush has been nearly mute on the topic of higher education. But with the Higher Education Act, which provides more than $80 billion in grants and loans and is up for renewal in 2004, this is soon to change. The White House plans to pin the blame on universities for making higher education unaffordable to students from low-and middle-income families, as well as for allowing too many students to drop out. A new report from the College Board finds that public universities and community colleges raised tuition by 14 percent this year, the highest rate in three decades. Although these increases mainly compensate for declining government support, the GOP believes that bashing colleges for what Boehner assails as "hyperinflation" is a political winner. The Bush Administration and its friends in Congress have one thing right: Higher education is in deep trouble. But their proposed remedy would make things much worse. The trickledown economic mess has obliged almost every state to cut back on support for public universities, but Republicans are telling these cash starved institutions to hold the line on tuition or lose millions of dollars in federal grants and loans. Nationwide, college enrollments are steadily growing. But because state support and tuition don't fully cover the cost of providing an education, each new student means more red ink for the university. That's why many universities are turning away eligible students or ratcheting up their admission standards.

When the Supreme Court was faced, during Vietnam, with a suit by soldiers refusing to go, claiming that there had been no declaration of war by Congress, as the Constitution required, the soldiers could not get four Supreme Court justices to agree to even hear the case. The Constitution gave no rights to working people: no right to work less than 12 hours a day, no right to a living wage, no right to safe working conditions. Then, after the far right deemed Harriet Miers [nominated by George W. Bush] insufficiently doctrinaire, Bush nominated arch conservative Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses poverty denialism in regards to the views of many members of the U.S. Republican Party about poverty and the lifestyles of poor Americans as of November 2013. Government reductions in food stamps are mentioned, along with welfare reform and the political and social views of Republicans such as former U.S. President George W. Bush. The author argues that Republican extremism in regards to poor people could turn into a winning political issue for Democrats.

The article discusses the influence of wealthy citizens on U.S. politics, noting the relative lack of influence held by poorer citizens. Topics include policy changes that would take place were U.S. public opinion influential in shaping legislation, the purported neglect of citizen interests by the Democratic Party, and policies enacted by the administrations of former U.S. Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush. Responses to this discussion from people including author Larry M. Bartels, political commentator Matthew Yglesias, and political scientist Kay Lehman Schlozman are presented.

Examines the potential factors that contribute to the slow response of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast. Failure to consider the situation of the poor during the pre-disaster planning; Refusal of Donald Rumsfeld, head of the Department of Defense, to deploy regular soldiers to aid disaster victims; Lack of officials with experience in disaster response at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The author comments on U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terror, and calls upon Americans to pursue justice and to seek peace in the coming year. Many people believed at the time that the trauma of 9/11 would change the world. My feeling was that our American response would be far more crucial. The President, after all, did not have to declare war. He could have said to the American people and the world, "We will respond, but not in kind. We will not seek to avenge the death of innocent Americans by the death of innocent victims elsewhere, lest we become what we abhor. What we will do is build coalitions with other nations." But instead of deepening our kinship with the world's suffering, the President chose to invoke an almost unlimited sense of entitlement to pursue in our own way what he termed a struggle "to rid the world of evil." But an election year is upon us, another ripe moment for educating and for changing regimes in Washington. Although still claiming moral clarity, the President is clearly losing moral authority. Like politicians, clergy can be so cautious as to become moral failures. Now, however, they are signing on by the hundreds to the Clergy Leadership Network, recently formed to counter the influence of the Christian right. They are eager to resurrect two great biblical mandates -- to pursue justice and to seek peace. So much is at stake in the new year that despair is not an option.

The author argues that recent campaign finance reforms not go far enough in protecting the interests of poor and minority Americans. Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), better known as the McCain-Feingold law, by a 5-to-4 majority, is the need for campaign finance reform over? A surprising number of people seem to think so. First there are members of Congress, who are said to be experiencing "reform fatigue," overwhelmed by the technicalities of the law they passed. Then there are the cynics in the press who have been saying all along that campaign reform can't work. Now they point to the recent emergence of independent committees, known as Section 527 organizations after the relevant part of the IRS tax code, as proving their point. These committees are funded with soft money from wealthy donors like philanthropist George Soros. All these people are wrong. First of all, Congress cannot and should not stop now. All BCRA does is end the raising and spending of unlimited soft-money donations by federal party committees and candidates running for federal office and constrain the financing of some ads aimed at helping or hurting candidates. But now Congress ought to deal with the fact that the remaining system of financing campaigns is grossly unfair and unrepresentative.

The author criticizes a new book by economist Paul Krugman, arguing that Krugman defends the neoliberal policies of former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Enter the world of Paul Krugman, a world either dark (the eras of Bush I and Bush II) or bathed in light (when Bill was king). Near the beginning of his collection of columns, "The Great Unraveling," Krugman looks back on Clinton time. Across the past three years Krugman has become the Democrats' Clark Kent. A couple of times each week he bursts onto the New York Times Op-Ed page in his blue jumpsuit, shoulders aside the Geneva Conventions and whacks the bad guys. Krugman paints himself as a homely Will Rogers type, speakin' truth to the power elite from his virtuous perch far outside the Beltway: "Why did I see what others failed to see? he asks, apropos his swiftness in pinning the Liars label on the Bush Administration. All of which is self-serving hooey. The homely perch is Princeton. Krugman shares, with no serious demur, all the central assumptions of the neoliberal creed that has governed the prime institutions of the world capitalist system for the past generation and driven much of the world deeper; ever deeper, into extreme distress. The fact that he skirts Cuba, can't be bothered even to address the consequences, or even contours, of the shift in Third World economic strategies in the postwar period, tells us how little Krugman is prepared to look with any honesty at his own economic ideas in the mirror. Krugrnan is a press agent, a busker, for Clintonomics.

Discusses U.S. President George W. Bush's tax cut. Republicans who decided that the working poor, who pay little or no income taxes, should not receive the expanded tax credit; Amount of money that was saved by denying the stipends; Criticism of Bush for claiming to be a compassionate conservative; Argument of Bush in his presidential campaign; Discussion of Jesus Christ's parables; Effect of the tax cut on poor children; Criticism of Bush's foreign policy.

The article offers information on Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), the state Medicaid program of Indiana. The HIP is the first state health plan model that has a consumer-driven look. It was introduced in January 2008 with aim to open up coverage, including high-deductible health plan and health savings account, to low-income adults without children. It was the first state health plan approved under the Affordable Choices Initiative of U.S. President George W. Bush administration.

The article deals with the final State of the Union Address of U.S. President George W. Bush which focuses on the economy. Bush pressed the Congress to approve the $150 billion package, which is not loaded with initiatives that would delay or derail it. Initiatives proposed by Bush include mandating agencies give equal consideration to religious-based groups providing services to low-income families.

The article focuses on a debate over the tax cuts initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. The publication of an opinion article in "The Wall Street Journal" about income inequality in the country by Edward Lazear, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, has spurred the revival of the debate. There is an argument on whether the tax cuts favor poor or rich taxpayers.

The article reflects on the budget proposed by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for 2006. It criticizes the proposed budget. It stresses the implications of the proposed budget for the poor. It addresses the issue of poverty in the U.S.

Reports on the approval of a bill reauthorizing the Higher Education Act of 1965 which would continue the Perkins Student Loan Program in the U.S. Number of students who depend on the program to finance their education; Reason behind the elimination of the program by U.S. President George W. Bush; Implications of the elimination of the program on low-income students.

The article focuses on U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign aid program known as the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). George W. Bush's flagship foreign-aid programme is under fire. Since 2002, when the president promised to set it up, the Millennium Challenge Corporation has found only four relatively small poor countries to give money to. Last week, the MCC's chief executive, Paul Applegarth, announced that he was quitting. The MCC is unloved by both left and right. A Republican-led House of Representatives sub-committee has just recommended nearly halving its budget, to $1.75 billion next year. American liberals suspect it is part of Bush's conspiracy to conservatise the world. And Europeans mock the MCC as slower, meaner and more ideological than their own aid programmes.

Focuses on the role of taxation law in the gap between the rich and the poor in the U.S. discussed in the article "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind: Tax Laws Help to Widen Gap at Very Top," by David Cay Johnston, published in the June 5, 2005 issue of the periodical "The New York Times." Increase in the share of U.S. income earned by rich people; Percentage of increase in the assets of rich families in 2001; Impact of tax cuts implemented by the administration of President George W. Bush on the social gap.

Presents letters to the editor in response to "Going Up In Flames," and "The Poor Get Poorer," in the September 29, 2003 issue. Letters in response to "The Twilight of Tony Blair," in the September 29 issue.

Presents letters to the editor in response to "Going Up In Flames," and "The Poor Get Poorer," in the September 29, 2003 issue. Letters in response to "The Twilight of Tony Blair," in the September 29 issue.

Discusses United States President George W. Bush's proposals for a tax credit to make health insurance more affordable for individuals and families not covered by an employer-sponsored plan. Support for the plan in Congress; Expected amounts that would be awarded to single people or families based on their income; Expectation that the plan will not help many low-income households.

Assesses the benefits that poor people in the United States (U.S.) would obtain from the tax cut plan of President George W. Bush. Percentage of the U.S. population who earn less than $50,000 a year; Debate over the tax cut proposal; Why ordinary people lose interest in the political process.

The article comments on policies of U.S. President George W. Bush toward the poor in the U.S. Bush has laid out proposals for reforming Social Security, a public-pension system. The proposals, as stated, make a contrast to Vice-President Albert Gore's refusal to touch the pension programme at all. On education, Bush has offered voters more choice and competition in schools. By offering more choice, as also stated, he is focusing on the poor.

The author discusses tax cuts made by U.S. President George W. Bush and says that even though Bush cut taxes on the rich, the amount of taxes paid by the rich actually increased. Opponents to Bush's tax cuts, which include 2008 U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, say that the cuts forced the poor to pay more taxes, but a chart shows that the poor pay less under Bush's policies and the rich pay more.

The author reflects on the frequent use of religion in the U.S. politics. He states that even the "Pledge of Allegiance" includes Christianity on its phrases. He also cited U.S. President George W. Bush's relying on Jay Hein, head of the Bush office aid to religion, regarding his various decisions especially when it comes to helping the poor.

The article reports on a meeting held by U.S. President George W. Bush on April 13, 2007 to discuss his school choice scholarship proposal. He praised Catholic schools for providing leading educational services to so-called hard to educate students. Bush also used the occasion to promote a key administration priority for an expansion of the current public school choice option for low-income students' transfers to private schools.

The article presents an interview with David Kuo, author of the book "Tempting Fish" and former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He states that the central argument he would like to emphasize in the book is the role of U.S. President George W. Bush as pastor-in-chief. According to him, Bush should have called on the Democrats to pass a faith-based initiative. The author believes that a promise made by a politician to the poor is sacred.

This article considers briefly a report issued by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office in December 2005 which shows that the poorest one-fifth in the U.S. got a collective tax increase in 2003. The impact of U.S. President George W. Bush's tax laws on wealthy U.S. citizens is noted. A chart that shows the taxes paid by poor U.S. citizens in 2003 is presented.

Focuses on the impact of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina that hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in August 2005 on the lobbying strategies of lobbyists. Effects of the disaster on the enactment of tax cuts for the wealthy; Estimated cost of rebuilding and providing basic needs to the disaster victims; Increase in the number of poor people during the administration of President George W. Bush.

Comments on the disengagement of U.S. President George W. Bush from the needs of poor people as seen in the deficiencies in the disaster relief effort for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Financial consequences of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq; Significance of the budget allocated by the government for war to poor communities; Indication of the awareness of the administration on the living conditions of poor people.

Discusses the decision of U.S. President George W. Bush to abandon an incentive enacted as part of his 2001 tax-cut legislation that encourages low- and middle-income workers to save money. Concept of the saver's credit system; Reasons behind the abandonment of the system; Details of a lifetime savings account proposal of the Bush administration, which is intended to be particularly appealing to low-income folks because of the removal of any special requirements.

Comments on the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. Increase in costs for all aspects of normal living; Challenges facing seniors, the disabled and low income people; Views on the victory of Bush in the 2004 elections.

Criticizes the proposal of U.S. President George W. Bush to reduce the budget for social programs in the U.S. Implications of the proposal for less fortunate U.S. citizens; Social problems that the government must address to help the poor citizens; Biblical teaching about poverty.

Reports on the failure of U.S. President George W. Bush to support the program he promised for poor people, including charity tax incentives according to David Kuo, a former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Efforts of the White House concerning a faith-based initiative budget; Amount promised by Bush for charity tax incentive during his 2000 election campaign; Statement of Maria Tamburri, a White house spokeswoman, regarding the work of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

The article discusses whether United States President George W. Bush means what he says about being a compassionate conservative. Back in 2000, Bush defined himself as a compassionate conservative. This was partly a matter of branding: he softened the image of his party by talking about spending more money on education and health. But compassionate conservatism was also presented as a new way to help the poor: its aim was to use public money and private donations to involve churches, temples and mosques in America's social policy. Yet compassionate conservatism has been inadequately financed, not supported by any real political commitment and representative of a huge gap between the president's rhetoric and practice. David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, argued in Beliefnet.com, a religious website, that Bush's "promises remain unfulfilled in spirit and in fact."

Presents statistics on the status of low-income working families in the U.S. under the administration of President George W. Bush based from a report released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in October 2004. Increase in the number of low-income U.S. citizens in spite of the pledge of President Bush to reduce poverty through tax reform; Criteria for a family to be considered low-income; Assumptions regarding the U.S. economy which are contradicted by the statistics in the report.