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163 Epilogue A New Era—A Global Economic Crisis and the Obama Administration If ever there were a moment that illustrates inequality in the United States, we see it in the government’s response to the catastrophic economic meltdown during the final months of the Bush administration. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was signed by President Bush in October 2008. Almost overnight the federal government passed legislation to spend $700 billion to aid the failing economy, much of which was used to infuse capital into the banking system. This bailout stands in stark relief to the paltry monthly cash that destitute people receive in welfare benefits. New York’s basic welfare grant (nonshelter portion) had not increased for almost two decades. For years advocates had been pushing to raise the grant through lobbying, call-in and letterwriting campaigns to legislators, and other efforts. In December 2008 New York State’s Democratic governor, David A. Paterson, announced his fiscal year 2009–2010 executive budget. In it he proposed an increase to the basic welfare grant of 10 percent per year over three years beginning in January 2010. In early 2009 the enacted budget agreement included the welfare grant increase; it was set to start in July 2009. For a family of three the grant had been $291 a month. In the first year of the increase the family will realize a monthly gain of $30. Three years out a family of three will receive $388 a month. While this is a start, it hardly constitutes beneficence in light of the magnitude of the federal bailout to failing banks and other corporations. Now consider the names of the acts related to welfare reform and the bailout. “Personal responsibility” is a key concept inscribed in the title of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 164 Living on the Edge in Suburbia 1996. Public support and legislation for welfare reform were influenced by ideologies that blame poor people for their situation and insist that they assume full responsibility for themselves and their family, regardless of the structural forces that create social inequality. Because of devolution, the government abdicates its responsibility to the poor and pushes it onto individuals through mechanisms that ultimately force recipients off the welfare rolls and into low-wage jobs or leaves them completely adrift. The bailout act, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (and the accompanying rescue fund, the Troubled Asset Relief Program), is devoid of any inference to behavior or even accountability. We do not get a sense of the irresponsibility of policy makers, corporate elites, and others who championed deregulation and other neoliberal practices that have spurred and fueled the extant global economic crisis and contributed to U.S. inequality and poverty for decades. In the neoliberal and neoconservative environment, there appears to have been little moral obligation or political will to adequately provide for the American working class, let alone poor families. The playing field worsened for poor people. The minimum wage does not provide a living wage. Welfare benefits became temporary; the policies became stricter and abetted the movement of cheap, mostly poorly educated, female labor into low-wage jobs in the interest of profit. And continued welfare restructuring has resulted in persistent assaults on needy people. At the start of the Obama administration we have begun to see changes. On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic recovery package comprised of spending programs and tax measures designed to stimulate economic activity and employment in the sinking economy. The package contains some provisions to aid low- and moderate-income families. Among them, an additional $2 billion will be provided under the Child Care and Development Block Grant that will help states provide childcare subsidies to more low-income working families, such as Roseanne Tate’s, and to other families in which parents are engaged in education or training. The new Making Work Pay Credit will provide tax relief of up to $400 per worker. Some of the working mothers I interviewed benefit from the Earned Income Tax Credit; this credit has been expanded. All of the parents that I met received aid from the federal food stamps program at some time in their lives, and many said that it was not enough to get them through the month (as of October 1, 2008, the program was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Approximately [18.222.125.171] Project MUSE...

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