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    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Obama has a NEW JOB's Program: Not for Black Males, College Grad's, Veteran's, Union

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    U.S. sees highest poverty spike since the 1960s, leaving 50 million Americans poor as government cuts billions in spending... so does that mean there's no way out?

    By AP
    PUBLISHED: 14:03 EST, 2 April 2013 | UPDATED: 14:05 EST, 2 April 2013
    Comments (355)

    The number of Americans living in poverty has spiked to levels not seen since the mid 1960s, classing 20 per cent of the country’s children as poor.

    It comes at a time when government spending cuts of $85 billion have kicked in after feuding Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a better plan for addressing the national deficit.

    The cuts will directly affect 50 million Americans living below the poverty income line and reduce their chances of finding work and a better life.

    Success story: Before spending cuts kicked in, 49-year-old Antonio Hammond (pictured) became a success story for Catholic Charities of Balitmore and is now in employment

    Before spending cuts kicked in on March 1st, 49-year-old Antonio Hammond became a success story for Catholic Charities of Baltimore - one of a multitude of organizations trying to haul people out of poverty.

    In this Maryland port city, one of four residents is considered poor by U.S. government standards.

    Hammond says he ended up in Baltimore three years ago, addicted to crack cocaine and snorting heroin, living in abandoned buildings where "the rats were fierce," and financing his addiction by breaking into cars and stealing copper pipes out of crumbing structures.

    Eighteen months after finding his way to Catholic Charities via a rehabilitation center, the Philadelphia native is back in the work force, clean of drugs, earning $13 an hour cleaning laboratories for the Biotech Institute of Maryland and paying taxes.

    Kicked his habit: Antonio Hammond (pictured) says he ended up in Baltimore three years ago, addicted to crack cocaine and snorting heroin - while living in poverty

    Catholic Charities, which runs a number of federally funded programs, spent $18,000 from privately donated funds to turn around Hammond's life through the organization's Christopher's Place program which provides housing and support services to recovering addicts and former prisoners.

    Such success stories are in danger as billions in federal government spending cuts begin squeezing services for the poor nationwide.

    They are hitting as the U.S. slowly climbs out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

    "All I wanted to do was get high," Hammond said. "I didn't even know any more how to eat or clean myself."

    Now he lives with two other men in housing subsidized by the charity, got his driver's license and bought a car. What he marvels at the most is that he has been accepted after a 20-year absence by some of his nine children. That's the best part, he said. "At least I know now they might not hate me."

    The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels not seen since the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the federal government's so-called War on Poverty.

    As President Barack Obama began his second term in January, nearly 50 million Americans — one in six — were living below the income line that defines poverty, according to the bureau. A family of four that earns less than $23,021 a year is listed as living in poverty.

    The bureau said 20 percent of the country's children are poor.

    Although it is far from the country's poorest city, Baltimore's poverty rate far outstrips the national average of one in six.

    Catholic Charities of Baltimore is a conduit for state and federal money for programs designed to help the poor. The charity plays a major role in administering Head Start, a federal program that provides educational services for low-income pre-school children and frees single mothers to find work without the huge expense of childcare.

    The spending cuts, known as the sequester, are going to hit Head Start especially hard.

    "Before the sequester only half of the need was being met. Now, after the cuts fully take effect, there will be 900 children already in the program who won't be able to take part," said William McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities.

    The streets of Baltimore: Baltimore is far from the worst American city for poverty, but it faces all the problems of cities where vast numbers of the poor now live

    There is no question the national belt-tightening "will deepen and increase poverty," said McCarthy, citing the cuts in long-term care for poor seniors including assisted living and nursing care, and fewer low-income housing spaces, among other ripple effects.

    Under the spending cuts, Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said his agency faces a $25 million shortfall in funds to help poor people with housing.

    There are 35,000 people on the waiting list. He also lamented cuts that will hamper the city's efforts to clean up or demolish blighted neighborhoods.

    Baltimore has 15,000 vacant and abandoned structures as a result of a steep population decline over the past half century.

    "It's very, very disheartening. We take a couple of steps forward and then fall back at least one. The private sector isn't going to fix these neighborhoods. I view these things as investments, not expenditures. These things are an investment in the future that bring returns many times over," he said.

    While the U.S. economy is slowly recovering, improvements for those deep in poverty do not keep pace with the cuts now in place.

    The spending reductions going into effect will hit hardest at Americans whose prospects are not directly tied to the economy — people like Antonio Hammond and children in the Head Start pre-school programs.

    Kids on the streets: When President Obama started his second term in January, 20 per cent of America's children were classed as poor

    Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Baltimore depends on federal grants and funding for 12 percent of its budget.

    The austerity cuts "to housing programs_as well as those to public safety, health, and education_will have an adverse effect on Baltimore and throughout the country," she said.

    The cuts, which will also hit U.S. defense spending, were designed two years ago as an incentive for lawmakers to avoid a standoff over the federal debt and a potential government shutdown.

    The measures were seen as so onerous as to force Republicans and Democrats in Congress to reach a compromise spending plan. But compromise proved impossible before the March 1 deadline, and what were once seen as unthinkable cuts automatically went into effect.

    Democrats want a deficit reduction plan that includes some spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy. Republicans balk at any more tax increases and insist the problem should be addressed solely by reigning in spending. That feud continues as the two sides battle out future fiscal issues.

    Republicans want to see even more cuts in next year's budget, reductions that would, by and large, return military spending to pre-sequester levels and provide big tax benefits to wealthy Americans.

    A 2014 budget plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate on the unsuccessful Republican presidential ticket last year, would be particularly tough on social safety net programs.

    His plan would slash $135 billion over the next decade from the program that provides food aid for low-income Americans. Nearly three-quarters of households receiving help from the program include children, who, census figures show, are the group hardest hit by poverty.

    Ryan's plan would also turn the government's Medicare health insurance program for Americans age 65 and over into a voucher system, providing direct government payments to seniors who would then try to buy insurance on the private market.

    Derelict conditions: Baltimore (pictured) has 15,000 vacant and abandoned structures as a result of a steep population decline over the past half century

    Ryan defends his drive for austerity as necessary to begin shrinking the country's $16 trillion national debt.

    "If we never balance the budget, if we keep adding deficit upon deficit we have a debt crisis like Europe has.

    That means seniors lose their health care benefit, that means the people in the safety net see the net cut and they go in the street.

    That means you have a recession. These are the things we prevent from happening by balancing the budget.

    Balancing the budget is but a means to an end. It's growing the economy, it's creating opportunity, it's getting government to live within its means," he said in an interview with Fox News.

    Obama backs increasing taxes on the wealthy while instituting smaller government spending cuts, a plan that would reduce deficit spending but more slowly. He and most fellow Democrats argue that European-style austerity has not worked there and will harm the U.S. recovery from the Great Recession.

    It's an ideological fight that dates back decades. Republicans work from the premise that by unleashing the private sector and removing government controls, all Americans will prosper along with the economy and benefits will flow down to lower-income earners.

    Democrats insist there is an essential role for government in putting a floor under the poor and helping local governments with problems that the private sector cannot or will not shoulder.

    Some worry the gap between rich and poor in the U.S. will keep widening under the austerity measures.

    According to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service late last year, "U.S. income distribution appears to be among the most unequal of all major industrialized countries and the United States appears to be among the nations experiencing the greatest increases in measures of income."

    Mary Anne O'Donnell, director of community services at Catholic Charities of Baltimore, said increasing income inequality has shown itself dramatically during the U.S. downturn.

    "In the last three years, there's been a great change in the kinds of people we are serving. There are increasing numbers of people who owned a home, lost their jobs, end up living in their car and are coming with children to our soup kitchen," she said.

    Her organization spent $126 million in the last fiscal year feeding the poor, helping them find jobs and housing, running nursing homes and putting men like Hammond back on their feet.

    Of that figure, $98 million came from various programs funded by the city, state and federal governments. Those now face the big cuts as politicians in Washington fail to find a compromise.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2PWXq9GPV

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    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Dems Vote To Fund Food Stamp Promotions On Mexican Soil

    WATCH THE VOTE TAKE PLACE AT THIS LINK!!!



    At Thursday’s Budget Committee mark-up, Sen. Jeff Sessions offered an amendment to prohibit any further funds from being expended on the controversial U.S.-Mexico food stamp partnership, which allows USDA to advertise food stamp benefits in foreign consulates. This commonsense amendment was voted down unanimously by the panel’s Democrats.

    http://www.westernjournalism.com/dem...-mexican-soil/
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    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Look who's giving American jobs to illegals

    Pity the poor immigrant, sang Bob Dylan.

    No, say top university labor economists. Pity the poor American worker whose wages and protections have been eroded by illegal immigration.

    So why are THESE Senate Republicans, charged with crafting "comprehensive immigration reform," pushing amnesty without protections for American workers' paychecks?




    WND EXCLUSIVE

    AMERICAN LABOR TAKES AN 'AMNESTY' HIT

    Analysts say newcomers drive down wages, working conditions

    Published: 42 mins ago
    by JOHN BENNETT

    Senate Republicans in the “Gang of Eight” have rejected straightforward language, suggested by labor advocates as part of an amnesty proposal, that would have had visas issued “only when the employment of foreign workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly situated workers in the United States.”

    The visas at issue largely concern low-skilled workers, and some scholars say rejecting the idea amounts to a betrayal of American working people.

    Professor Vernon Briggs, a Cornell labor economist, tells WND that “[a]mnesty for illegal immigrants sanctions the overt violation all of the nation’s worker protection laws.”

    Briggs, who focuses on the economic impact of immigration, argues that, “[t]he toleration of illegal immigration undermines all of our labor. It rips at the social fabric. It’s a race to the bottom.”

    This downward pressure on wages operates in tandem with an upward pressure on social services and welfare spending, critics complain.

    “Assimilating into the welfare system,” according to Harvard economist George Borjas, is too often the trend.

    Borjas’ book “Heaven’s Door” pointed out that during the late 1990s, the U.S. took in over one million immigrants annually.

    This inflow was most harmful to low-wage workers, Borjas argues.

    Now, more Americans are treading water in the very part of the job market that is most vulnerable to immigration. Given the current economic downturn, people with advanced degrees are searching out low-skilled, low-wage jobs. Increasing competition with low-skilled immigrants would further crowd the narrow avenues of subsistence.

    Back in 1986 it was ‘unrealistic’ to round up and deport the three million illegal immigrants in the United States then. So they were given amnesty – honestly labeled, back then – which is precisely why there are now 12 million illegal immigrants.



    So said Thomas Sowell in 2007, when an amnesty proposal was rejected. In 2007, conservatives and many Republicans recognized that amnesties were simply going to continue until they were stopped.
    NumbersUSA, a think tank that supports sustainable levels of legal immigration, notes seven amnesties in recent history:



    1. Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 1986: A blanket amnesty for some 2.7 million illegal aliens
    2. Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994: A temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens
    3. Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997: An extension of the rolling amnesty created in 1994
    4. Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997: An amnesty for close to one million illegal aliens from Central America
    5. Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998: An amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti
    6. Late Amnesty, 2000: An amnesty for some illegal aliens who claim they should have been amnestied under the 1986 IRCA amnesty, an estimated 400,000 illegal aliens
    7. LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000: A reinstatement of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty, an estimated 900,000 illegal aliens




    Immigration policies are often not as advertised, too.

    The president pledged that the Affordable Care Act would not cover undocumented aliens.

    However, if those undocumented aliens are given amnesty, they could easily receive Obamacare, along with Medicaid and a range of other social services.

    [I]The resulting strain on social services would not be unique to America; Western European nations have faced similar challenges. The Economist recently reported that, “n Sweden only 51 percent of non-Europeans have a job, compared with over 84 percent of native Swedes.”

    Worse yet, “mass immigration is creating a class of people who are permanently dependent on the state.”

    Douglas Murray, a prominent British conservative intellectual, notes that large-scale immigration “spells the end of our unified national way of life.” He also pointed to the anti-white racial intolerance that has arisen in the immigration debate:

    [T]he vindictiveness
    with which the concerns of white British people, and the white working and middle class in particular, have been met by politicians and pundits alike is a phenomenon in need of serious and swift attention.



    Immigration and multiculturalism have been discussed in Western European nations in a more open manner than that seen in the U.S., thus far. A number of well-respected national leaders, who are moderate-to-liberal by American standards, recently claimed that multiculturalism has failed in their countries.

    Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Australia’s former prime minister John Howard, and former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar have all openly stated that multiculturalism has “failed” in their nations.

    The observations of scholars and a multitude of Western leaders suggest that strict immigration policy could be needed just for economies and culture to survive.

    The “Gang of Eight” Republicans made their decision during negotiations held last Friday in a closed door session.

    The “Gang” is bipartisan group of four Republican and four Democratic senators who each support amnesty. The plan they produce will be voted upon by the rest of Congress.

    Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said during an election debate in 2010 that he would never support a pathway to citizenship, a position he has since abandoned. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wants to provide illegal immigrants with benefits. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., recently claimed, “It’s important for our country to solve illegal immigration once and for all“; a statement without any apparent meaning, given that there have been at least seven amnestiespassed by Congress since 1986. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is a long-time amnesty supporter, who co-sponsored five amnesties as a congressman.

    The Democrats on the Gang of Eight are more assertive amnesty supporters: Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.


    Read more at American labor takes an ‘amnesty’ hit
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