Poverty Programs Embattled in the South

[marmar]

from the American Prospect:



Poverty Programs Embattled in the South
Democratic losses in Southern state legislatures could imperil anti-poverty programs as states seek budget cuts.

Monica Potts | December 21, 2010 | web only


The big gains for Republicans in November's elections didn't stop with the U.S. House of Representatives: The GOP won governor's seats and other state-level races across the country. Nowhere were those gains more meaningful than in the South. In North Carolina and Alabama, Republicans gained control of statehouses for the first time in nearly a century. The only two states of the former confederacy where Democrats retained control of both houses of the legislature are Mississippi and Arkansas. Writing in Politico, Jonathan Martin noted those losses were exacerbated by at least 10 state legislators who switched from the Democratic to the Republican party after "concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South."

But this is more than a political story. While Democrats across the South are generally more conservative than the national party, they still served as a steady, if reticent, bulwark against the kinds of draconian cuts many Republicans want to make to anti-poverty programs, and African-American voters and legislators had a significant voice in Democratic-controlled legislatures. Now, however, states everywhere are grappling with how to save money, and the problem is particularly potent in the South because those states already had some of the lowest spending on programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. At the same time, states across the former Confederacy routinely rank among the poorest in the nation. Poverty is especially widespread among the black and Latino populations across the South (the poverty rate for black families in Mississippi is 44 percent), and as the economy crawls slowly out of the Great Recession those groups are likely to be hit hardest by any cuts the newly elected legislatures want to make.

It's too soon to tell exactly which programs are most vulnerable, but it's certain that spending cuts are a budget priority. Every politician this year promised to balance the state budget and cut jobs, but none in the South sounded the clarion call for raising taxes on the campaign trail. "There's definitely more of an anti-tax sentiment in many of these states, even in ones where Democrats have the upper hand," says Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies in North Carolina. "You also have a resistance to seeing government as the solution to a lot of social problems." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=poverty_programs_embattled_in_the_south

[dkf]

1. Wait! Aren't we thrilled the non-pure Blue dogs jumped ship?

Isn't this our triumph?

We should be dancing in the streets.

[jwirr]

3. I hear what you are saying but every time I try to say that I get flamed.

Way back when Thune won from a Democrat who many on this board hated because he did not provide miracles - I tried to tell them that a blue dog was better than a repug. At least they vote with you much of the time and you hold the committees.

[starroute]

4. And what are you suggesting as the alternative?

Do you wish the Democratic Party would become more conservative so as to hold onto its pro-corporate centrists? Given how much of Southern politics is based around a combination of racism and pure power moves, I can't see that exactly having much impact on the situation described in the article.

I also think a majority at DU would agree that the only viable future for the Democratic Party lies in standing up for its progressive roots -- something it hasn't done in several decades. The alternative just amounts to slow suicide.

[jwirr]

2. Calvinism and the double predestination reign supreme. People

who are being hit by this should ask themselves if the church they go to preaches this false doctrine of hate and get out if it does. To stay is to be part of the crime.