Grassroots ideas
for fighting povertyThe move over the summer to allow waivers of the work requirement ... showed disregard for the leaders of some of the nation's poorest communities. These leaders had cried out against the corrosive effects of the old welfare system on neighborhoods, families and the spirit of individual responsibility. ...In 1995, they formed a task force charged by House Speaker Newt Gingrich with informing the legislative effort to reform the old welfare system. Known as the Grassroots Alternatives to Public Policy initiative, the reform-minded community leaders called for tough time limits and work requirements on welfare benefits. These became central principles in the law Congress enacted in 1996.As a result of that historic reform, welfare rolls dropped by half, and poverty among black children fell to its lowest level on record in America as families moved to independence from the welfare state.Despite that success, there is much more to be done. That's why a new generation of grassroots leaders came to Washington on Sept. 12-13 for an anti-poverty summit. The 25 leaders met with today's welfare reformers in Congress ... and other members of the Republican Study Committee, in conjunction with the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and The Heritage Foundation.These neighborhood leaders from across the nation have addressed effectively the most entrenched problems of poverty in many of America's most devastated communities. Their approach promotes principles of personal responsibility, reciprocity and opportunity with a goal of empowering families to achieve upward mobility and, ultimately, self-sufficiency.Read more-- Jennifer A. Marshall, The Heritage Foundation; Robert L. Woodson Sr., Center for Neighborhood EnterpriseLying about blacksto score political pointsThe debate over welfare reform is raging because of a "misleading" political ad from Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney that accuses President Obama of "a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements." Everyone and his mother have pretty much refuted its claims. ...Factcheck.org reported that Ron Haskins, a former Republican House committee aide who played a central role in the 1996 welfare reform legislation, explained that the ad is misleading."I do not think it ends welfare reform or strongly undermines welfare reform," said Haskins, who is now the co-director of the Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families. "Each state has to say what they will do and how that reform ... will either increase employment or lead to better employment" of recipients.Newt Gingrich, the man who famously said in January that he would "go to the NAACP convention and tell the African-American community why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps" while campaigning for the nomination, has even said that there is "no proof" of the statements made in Romney's ad. However, he still has claimed -- in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper -- that someone with President Obama's ideology would be "comfortable sending a lot of people checks for doing nothing."Therein lies the rub: Even though Romney's ad makes questionable claims and President Obama hasn't attempted to lower the work requirement in order for welfare recipients to get benefits, many folks like Gingrich and House Speaker John Boehner are willing to perpetuate the image of black folks on welfare in order to curry favor with the extreme elements of the Republican base.Read more-- Nsenga K. Burton, The RootHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
