Bobert-I've got your back on this one for sure!

It was actually during the Nixon years that the American public began to lose the will to assure a minimal standard of living for all of our citizens. The federal government began chipping away at the funding for programs then and began to badly mess with the Food Stamp program. It was, however, during the Reagan era that the Title XX programs went completely the way of the dinosaurs. The big turning point was with the passage of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981.

The Title IV and the Title XX programs, and the Food Stamp program as it was operated under the original requirements and regulations, did not eliminate poverty in the US. They did, however, go a very, very long way toward mitigating against the very worst effects of poverty-the lack of minimally adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Under the auspices of the original Food Stamp program, malnutrition had been virtually eliminated in the United States by the early 1970's. By the early 1980's, we again saw significant levels of malnutrition in this country.

These programs cost the tax payers money. And somewhere along the way, a majority of those of us who have more than we really need lost the will and the moral imperative to insure that nearly everyone had at least enough.

In the early '80s I was a Policy Specialist with the Division of Economic Services for the West Virginia Dept. of Human Services. I had the dubious honor of rewriting West Virginia's programs and policies for administration of title IV-A ( Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a.k.a. AFDC), the Food Stamp program, and some of the Medicaid eligibility rules that were required as the result of the 1981 legislation. It made me so sick of what was happening that I left that position and went back into the field to direct practice, where I could try to do something directly in the lives of people to try to help mitigate against the drastic changes in programs and public spending.

For a long time, I thought the tide would turn, that the public will to insure a minimum level of economic safety for all of our citizens would return. It is 26 years later, and it still hasn't happened.

And it is not to blamed on the government. It is not to be blamed on conservative Republicans. Bill Clinton's Work First program is much harsher and more restrictive than anything that came before.

What we have now (or don't have) in the way of a social safety net is an expression of the will of the voting public.

When I opened this thread, my first thought was to stay out of it. After 35 years I am tired of talk and little action.

Janie