With the tenth anniversary of "the end of welfare as we know it" on the horizon,
the New York Times is reporting that the NYC welfare rolls have reached a record low.
The number of New York City residents receiving public assistance fell to 402,281 last month, the lowest number since December 1964, at the start of President Lyndon B. Johnson's war on poverty, and a decline of nearly two-thirds from its peak of nearly 1.2 million in March 1995, officials announced yesterday.
While some circles are cheering the news and searching for someone to thank (Bush? Bloomberg? Guiliani? Clinton?), there is much more to this story.
Take the jump....
As the Times notes:
The decline in the caseload is occurring amid concerns about income inequality, which has risen more sharply in the city than in the nation as a whole, and new signs that poor families are having a harder time meeting housing and food costs.
A decline in welfare case loads does not unnecessarily equate a strong economy or a reduction in poverty. In fact, many would argue that welfare reform itself has played a large role in the sharpening class divide in New York and through out the nation.
While policy shop talk might not be the most exciting political show around, those of us in the progressive community can not lose sight of our goals. The point of winning elections is to be in a position to implement policy.
With the possibility of re-taking at least one house of Congress in the fall, Democrats need to begin framing the debate around social services now. One commenter at The Daily Politics (Ben Smith's new blog at the Daily News) brings up an interesting point for Democrats to consider:
Remember back in 1994 when the Republicans blamed the federal budget deficit on the poor, minorities, immigrants, people on welfare and people living in older cities? Well, since they took over they've cut assistance to those very people, and the welfare rolls have plunged.
So why is the federal deficit through the roof, why is our infrastructure crumbling, why do they say Social Security be cut even though your payroll taxes have generated huge surpluses for 20 years? It's time to ask the Republicans who they are going to blame this time.