Vox Media: on Welfare & Poverty
Cory Booker:
HOME Act: $134 billion a year via EITC for people in poverty
Cory Booker's HOME (Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity) Act is a massive expansion of the EITC, which provides supplemental cash to low-income people who work. The HOME Act (estimated cost $134 billion a year) would provide a refundable credit
to people paying more than 30% of their income in rent. The credit would be worth the difference between their year's rent (capped at the area fair-market rent) and 30% of their income.
The fair market rent requirement prevents the credit from going to luxury renters.[A similar bill by presidential rival Kamala Harris], the Middle Class Act and Rent Relief Act, would cost $93 billion a year and provide
$42 billion to people in poverty. Booker's HOME Act, which costs significantly more per year than Harris's rental bill, accordingly provides $51.9 billion to households in poverty.
Source: Vox.com,"5 anti-poverty plans" by 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jan 30, 2019
Donald Trump:
Rebuild our black inner cities, which are so sad
Trump put forward a particular vision of America after he won the California primary: "We're going to rebuild our inner cities, which are absolutely a shame and so sad. We're going to take care of our African-American people that have been mistreated
for so long. We're going to make you and your family safe, secure, and prosperous again. Together, we will put the American people first again."Trump's rhetoric about black Americans has been shaped by conservative views about what black America is
like and what its people want. They've been predicated on the idea that there are hard-working black people who are being held back by the cultural pathology of their inner-city surroundings.
This is a vision of the African-American community that's
been common in both white and black conservative politics for decades. It's the vision that brought some African-American leaders to support the war on drugs. It's the vision of "respectability politics" proponents from Ben Carson to Bill Cosby.
Source: Timothy A. Clary on Vox.com, Donald Trump's Black Outreach
Sep 17, 2016
Elizabeth Warren:
Bankruptcy filers are squeezed by economy, not irresponsible
To Warren, bankruptcy filers generally aren't trying to get out of debts racked up irresponsibly. "Many people in bankruptcy were solid bill payers until something knocked their legs out from under them," she said while describing her research in 2000.
"For 2/3 of these people, it was loss of a job, for 40% it was a serious medical problem and for 20% it was the economic fallout of divorce."Warren, in her book "The Two-Income Trap", and on a blog called Warren Reports on the Middle Class, which she
wrote with some collaborators, pushed [that] view. Her argument was that structural shifts in American family and economic life had made middle-class finances more fragile, leading to a spike in bankruptcies induced by job losses or medical problems.
She castigated the [2005 Congressional bankruptcy] bill as exacerbating the middle-class squeeze and as being an example of a broken politics working for special interests rather than average Americans. In her book,
Source: Vox.com on Warren's "The Two Income Trap"
May 6, 2019
Joe Biden:
2005 Bankruptcy bill was flawed, but my input made it better
In Elizabeth Warren's book "The Two-Income Trap," she castigated the [2005 bankruptcy] bill as exacerbating the middle-class squeeze and as being an example of a broken politics working for special interests. Warren singled-out Biden for criticism.
Biden's camp, needless to say, has a different view--seeing the 2005 legislation as an admittedly flawed effort to tackle a real problem that was made better thanks to the participation of Biden and other Democrats. "Because it was a certainty that the
Republican-controlled Congress and White House would turn the bankruptcy bill into law," a Biden spokesperson said, "then-Senator Biden fought for and won important concessions for middle class families in it, including protecting access to
Chapter 7 forgiveness for working people, making child support and alimony the number one priority for debt payments--in front of big banks and credit card companies--and forcing credit card companies to warn borrowers about their interest rates."
Source: Vox.com on Elizabeth Warren's "The Two Income Trap"
May 6, 2019
Kamala Harris:
LIFT Act and Rent Relief: $42 billion to people in poverty
Kamala Harris's LIFT the Middle Class Act and Rent Relief Act are a massive expansion of the EITC, which provides supplemental cash to low-income people who work. The LIFT Act (Livable Incomes for Families Today, estimated cost $247 billion a year)
would add another credit tied to work paid out monthly at a rate of $3,000 a year for childless single adults and $6,000 a year for couples or parents, phasing out for couples who make $100,000. The Rent Relief Act ($93 billion a year)
would offer a refundable tax credit to people making $100,000 or less and spending at least 30% of their income on rent. The credit would be worth a certain percentage of the difference
between their rent and 30% of their income. For the poorest renters, the credit would cover the full difference; for slightly less poor renters, 75%, and so on.
The LIFT Act Rent Relief Act would provide $42 billion to people in poverty.
Source: Vox.com,"5 anti-poverty plans" on 2020 Democratic primary
Jan 30, 2019
Ro Khanna:
GAIN Act: $111 billion a year for people in poverty
Sherrod Brown and Ro Khanna's GAIN Act is intended to reduce poverty. The GAIN (Grow American Incomes Now) Act ($111 billion a year) is a massive expansion of the EITC, which provides supplemental cash to low-income people
who work. The GAIN Act would double or triple the EITC's benefits, depending on family size, and increase the maximum income for families to receive the credit from the mid-$40,000 range to as high as $75,000.
Source: Vox.com,"5 anti-poverty plans": 2018 Congress CA-17 election
Jan 30, 2019
Sherrod Brown:
GAIN Act: $111 billion a year for people in poverty
Sherrod Brown and Ro Khanna's GAIN Act is intended to reduce poverty. The GAIN (Grow American Incomes Now) Act ($111 billion a year) is a massive expansion of the EITC, which provides supplemental cash to low-income people
who work. The GAIN Act would double or triple the EITC's benefits, depending on family size, and increase the maximum income for families to receive the credit from the mid-$40,000 range to as high as $75,000.
Source: Vox.com,"5 anti-poverty plans" on 2018 Ohio Senate race
Jan 30, 2019
Page last updated: Dec 02, 2023