{"id":5673,"date":"2011-08-23T00:35:02","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T07:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5673"},"modified":"2011-08-23T00:35:02","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T07:35:02","slug":"why-republicans-love-block-grant-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/23\/why-republicans-love-block-grant-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Republicans Love Block Grant Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sorry to say that it is a Democrat, who is responsible for the suffering this article describes.  When Bill Clinton transformed welfare into a block grant program, he separated millions from the help they needed.  You may ask why this is important after all these years.  By examining what that caused, we can see the reasons why the Republican plan convert Medicaid to a block grant program is so vile.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"23TANF\"<\/p>\n

On this day 15 years ago, President Bill Clinton signed a sweeping overhaul of the nation\u2019s welfare system that enacted onerous work requirements on poor families before they could collect government aid. The new law fulfilled Republicans long-held desire to (in the words of President Clinton) \u201cend welfare as we know it\u201d by creating the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) \u201cblock grant\u201d program<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The reform achieved its goal of reducing the number of families receiving federal aid<\/strong>: in the process, it also shredded<\/a> America\u2019s ability to help its neediest families during an economic downturn. The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released a series of charts<\/a> illustrating that TANF has failed to keep pace with the needs of struggling American families, especially during this long and difficult recession<\/strong>: [see graph]. <\/p>\n

The number of low-income families receiving welfare has fallen from 68 percent in 1996 to 27 percent<\/strong> today. As the American Prospect\u2019s Jake Blumgart noted, unlike the old system, which could respond to greater need when the economy went south, the TANF block grant program \u201cprovides an annual lump sum<\/strong> of $16.6 billion, with no allotted increases<\/a> for recession, population growth, or rises in the cost of living.\u201d It has even failed to keep up with inflation. In short, TANF\u2019s ability to provide income support to those who need it most has declined dramatically<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

If Republicans get their way, the exact same things will happen to people who need Medicaid.  Furthermore, block grant programs offer red state governors the opportunity to misallocate funds.  And every penny spent on a poor person\u2019s health needs is a penny Republicans can\u2019t give to a billionaire.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sorry to say that it is a Democrat, who is responsible for the suffering this article describes.  When Bill Clinton transformed welfare into a block grant program, he separated millions from the help they needed.  You may ask why this is important after all these years.  By examining what that caused, we can see […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}