Harry Reid statement on 10th Anniversary of Welfare Reform

[Cocoa]

is this a jab at Bill Clinton's editorial?

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=71103

Reid Statement on the 10th Anniversary of Welfare Reform

8/22/2006 5:50:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Jim Manley or Jon Steinberg, 202-224-2939, both of the Office of Harry Reid

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid today issued the following statement to mark the 10th anniversary of welfare reform. A fact sheet on important steps that Democrats are pushing to ensure hard-working Americans are not left behind in poverty is below.

"On the tenth anniversary of welfare reform, we must do more than look back at the past. Together, we must look forward to the future and use this moment as an opportunity to change course to take America in a new direction. Today, on the ten-year anniversary of welfare reform, Democrats renew our pledge to ensure that Americans who work hard and play by the rules never have to live in poverty."

---

Raise the minimum wage. It has been nine years since Congress increased the minimum wage. Today, a full-time minimum wage earner, working eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, all 52 weeks in the year, takes home just $10,712 pre-tax - which is almost $6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. (Department of Health and Human Services, 1/24/06) The minimum wage, after adjusting for inflation, is at its lowest level since 1955. (USA Today, 7/24/06) Democrats recognize that minimum-wage earners deserve a raise and have proposed increasing the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. This would mean a raise for 6.6 million workers who currently earn less than $7.25 per hour.

More child care assistance. Many states cannot meet the demand for child care subsidies, which is forcing qualified families to remain on waiting lists. The Republican budget reconciliation bill, enacted earlier this year, failed to include the child care funding needed to ensure that funding keeps pace with inflation and at a far lower level than what CBO estimates states will need to meet the stiffer work requirements in the same bill. (Center for Law and Social Policy and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/18/06)

Promote strong child support. One of the less frequently mentioned successes of welfare reform has been improved child support enforcement. However, the Republican budget reconciliation bill cut funding for child support enforcement. Because of this cost-cutting measure, CBO estimates that $8.4 billion in child support that would have been collected over the next ten years will go uncollected instead. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/20/05)

State flexibility to address barriers to work. Many welfare recipients face significant barriers to employment, such as physical and mental-health problems, limited education, and responsibilities for caring for a child with a disability. States need to have enough flexibility with work participation requirements to address the individual needs of welfare recipients and the underlying causes of their difficulties entering the workforce.

[texpatriot2004]

1. Harry Reid has a posse nm

[pazuzu]

2. Welfare reform = Clinton "governing like a Republican"

add on NAFTA and DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) to his DLC credentials.

[ikojo]

3. Another significant barrier to work is lack

of transportation. In the St Louis area many of the better paying jobs, even at places like McDonald's, are in the suburbs. To get to the western burbs from the city is at least an hour bus ride and that's if you are coming from the central corridore of St Louis County. If you are coming from north St Louis City or north St Louis County then it's far longer than that.

We need to improve our public transit system so that people don't have two or three hour commutes by bus.

[pazuzu]

4. Big Oil and the automakers crushed public transit long ago

n/t