NYT: Liberal Hopes Ebb in Post-Storm Poverty Debate

Pirate Smile

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon Oct-10-05 10:23 PM
Original message

NYT: Liberal Hopes Ebb in Post-Storm Poverty Debate

Edited on Mon Oct-10-05 10:59 PM by Pirate Smile

Published: October 11, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 - As Hurricane Katrina put the issue of poverty onto the national agenda, many liberal advocates wondered whether the floods offered a glimmer of opportunity. The issues they most cared about - health care, housing, jobs, race - were suddenly staples of the news, with President Bush pledged to "bold action."

But what looked like a chance to talk up new programs is fast becoming a scramble to save the old ones.

Representative Mike Pence, right, with his press secretary, Matt Lloyd, says raising taxes on the wealthy would hinder the Gulf Coast's revival.

Conservatives have already used the storm for causes of their own, like suspending requirements that federal contractors have affirmative action plans and pay locally prevailing wages. And with federal costs for rebuilding the Gulf Coast estimated at up to $200 billion, Congressional Republican leaders are pushing for spending cuts, with programs like Medicaid and food stamps especially vulnerable.

"We've had a stunning reversal in just a few weeks," said Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal advocacy group in Washington. "We've gone from a situation in which we might have a long-overdue debate on deep poverty to the possibility, perhaps even the likelihood, that low-income people will be asked to bear the costs. I would find it unimaginable if it wasn't actually happening."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/politics/11poverty.html?hp&ex=1129003200&en=985822270f6ea08b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

edit to add the Wash Post article on this topic which spins it in the opposite direction.:

Cuts in Energy Spending May Prove Elusive
Post-Katrina Efforts Slow GOP Drive

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 11, 2005; Page A02

Soaring energy prices and a renewed attention to issues of poverty after Hurricane Katrina are hampering Republicans' plans to cut dozens of federal programs that Congress had targeted for elimination before the hurricane struck.

By mid-summer, the House Appropriations Committee had identified 98 federal programs to terminate, at a savings of $4.3 billion. President Bush, pressured by his conservative base, had vowed to pursue such terminations in his 2006 budget proposal. And the rush of spending that followed Katrina has triggered an emphatic drive by small-government conservatives to begin reining in federal spending -- at least enough to cover the cost of hurricane relief.

But it could be much tougher to go after programs targeting high energy costs and flood control when Congress returns next week to complete work on spending plans for fiscal 2006, which began this month.

Among the programs set for elimination are high-energy cost amelioration grants totaling $28 million and natural disaster emergency loan subsidies totaling $3 million, both administered by the Agriculture Department. Other targets are $70 million in flood control and coastal emergency programs of the Army Corps of Engineers, a $298 million emergency low-income heating assistance fund, and the $10 million empowerment zone and enterprise community program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/10/AR2005101001316.html