Bush administration's proud about reducing Welfare payments while increasing poverty rate: "What should be surprising, even alarming, is the reaction of the Bush administration, which seems to range from indifference to petulance. Just three weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced proudly that the number of people receiving welfare benefits continued to fall last year. Does the administration really believe that when the number of people who need public assistance goes up, the number who actually receive it should go down? As recently as the mid-1990s, eight out of 10 families who were eligible for public assistance actually received it. Today, that figure is five out of 10.
...The number of jobless Americans who have exhausted their government unemployment benefits is twice as high as it was at a comparable point in the last recession, and yet President Bush has fought congressional efforts to extend unemployment benefits. More than 1 million Americans have lost their private health insurance during the last two years, yet the administration's answer is to propose shifting the responsibility for subsidized health insurance, through Medicaid, from Washington to the states."

- posted by geoff @ #