Jeb Bush on Welfare & Poverty Former Republican FL Governor

6 million more people in poverty during Obama's term

Poverty programs are ineffective, despite trillions spent

BUSH: No, to the contrary, I think we need to make our case to African-American voters that fixing a few big complex things will allow people to rise up. Six million more people are in poverty today than the day that Barack Obama got elected; 2,000 fewer dollars in disposable income for American families. We spend a trillion dollars a year on poverty programs and the net result is the percentage of people in poverty has remained the same. We should try something different: fix our schools, fix our economy, lessen the crime rates in the big urban areas and I think people in poverty could be lifted up.

4% growth strategy to lift people out of poverty

Vision for a right-to-rise society

The former Florida governor told listeners at the Detroit Economic Club that they "are part of a great story--the revival of a city that means so much to all Americans.

"In these past few years, when confronted with grave challenges, you have seized the opportunity to reform the city you love," Bush said. "And you have begun to repair the damage done by decades of mismanagement and empty promises."

It took the right kind of policies for Detroit to emerge from bankruptcy, a city that "under a previous administration was so proud of shutting down businesses that hadn't paid their licenses and fees, they bragged about it in press releases," he said.

1994 Phoenix Project: end welfare culture

Under the plan, Florida would refuse to accept federal funds to aid the state's poor families, and restrict benefits to just two years of assistance. To be eligible for benefits, poor women would be required to "identify the fathers of their children, submit to random drug tests and work if jobs were available," according to a Herald story from March 1, 1994.

Bush's welfare plan was an early sign of the sharply conservative tone that would come to characterize his entire campaign.

If you're born poor, the odds are stacked against you

"In our country today, if you're born poor, if your parents didn't go to college, if you don't know your father, if English isn't spoken at home, then the odds are stacked against you. You are more likely to stay poor today than at any other time since World War II," he said.

Proposed refusing federal money for welfare

Created Governor's Faith-Based Advisory Board

To pursue his strategy, Bush created in the Office of the Governor a Faith-Based Advisory Board designed to mobilize additional religious organizations and to encourage their participation in his efforts to make nongovernmental organizations the primary mechanism for delivering public services in Florida. The board also provided direction to state agencies in their use of religious organizations in their work and technical assistance to the organizations in securing grant funds from both the federal and state governments. Bush also required state agencies to create official positions--called faith-based liaisons--to help eliminate internal obstacles to the receipt of funding for religious groups.

1994: Get tough on recipients of public assistance

More government money to religious groups

Where George Sr. may have read executive summary of a report and schmoozed with the people who wrote it, and George Jr. may ask for a one-sentence synopsis and then snap at the aide for giving him too much information, Jeb will actually take the briefing book home and read it. In a press conference, Jeb will far more articulately explain the report and the policy than either his father or brother. In the end, though, the result is likely to be the same: a set of policies that in most cases only hard-core economic and cultural conservatives can support.

Welcome community and faith based organizations as partners

We are stronger because we recognize that government isn't the sole answer to the most important questions, and we welcome community and faith based organizations as partners to serve the needs of Florida families. Florida is in a better position to serve our people and face our future, and I thank the members of the Legislature for creating that opportunity.

Replace AFDC with limited temporary assistance

Limit welfare benefits; supports welfare-to-work

Supports the following principles concerning welfare:
• Maintain the four-year limit on welfare benefits.
• Require that able-bodied recipients participate in work-related activities in order to receive benefits.
• Limit benefits given to recipients if they have additional children while on welfare.

Help welfare recipients into workforce

Supports the following principles concerning welfare:
• Increase employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
• Provide tax incentives to businesses that hire welfare recipients.
• Provide child care for welfare recipients who work.
• Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.

Taking welfare should be more shameful than working

An example of how we have come to devalue shame in our society is in our welfare system. In the mid-1960s, only half of those eligible for welfare payments were taking them and many enrolled would refuse to take the maximum allowance. People shined shoes and found other ways to bring in money that by today’s standards would be considered shameful. However, by the early 1970s, the stigma of receiving welfare had been lost by an administration that encouraged receipt of welfare. The rolls exploded as a much higher percentage of those who were eligible suddenly thought it less shameful to take advantage of the benefits rather than employ themselves in a job requiring hard work, such as shining shoes or sweeping floors. For many it is more shameful to work than to take public assistance-that is how backward shame has become!

Maintain federal Social Services Block Grant funding.

The Issue

NGA’s Position

In 1996, Governors reluctantly agreed to a slight reduction in funding for SSBG, from $2.8 billion to $2.38 billion, with the understanding that funding would remain at $2.38 billion through fiscal 2002, and then return to $2.8 billion. However, the federal government has consistently broken that promise. The nation’s Governors strongly urge Congress and the administration to reject the proposed cuts and to restore funding and flexibility to the program.

Maintain flexibility & funding levels for TANF block grants.

The Issue

NGA’s Position

In 1996, the Governors, Congress, and the administration entered into a historic welfare reform agreement. In exchange for assuming the risk involved with accepting the primary responsibility for transforming the welfare system from one of dependency to self-sufficiency, Governors agreed to guaranteed funding for the life of the TANF block grant along with significant flexibility to administer federal programs. The current NGA policy on welfare reform makes three key points:
1. Maintain flexibility. The TANF block grant was created so that states could develop innovative approaches to addressing welfare reform, and states have been successful in tailoring their programs to meet the individual needs of their citizens. This flexibility must be maintained so that states can continue the progress of welfare reform.
2. Maintain investment. States are provided with $16.5 billion each year in federal TANF funds, which together with the required state maintenance-of-effort funds, finance welfare reform. Some will argue that the funding should be cut because of the dramatic drop in caseloads. But TANF is no longer just about cash assistance - states are now serving a much broader population than under the old welfare system, and states are now providing services to families that help them succeed and advance in the workplace, not just cutting a check for cash each month.
3. Move toward greater program alignment. The Food Stamp Program is one example of a program that is in great need of reform, and its connection to welfare reform should be discussed in the context of reauthorization. Other related programs that should be considered include child support, child welfare, housing, the Workforce Investment Act and Medicaid.

More federal funding for Low-income energy assistance.

• Whereas, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), created to assist low-income households in meeting their cooling and heating needs, provides less than 20 percent of the Nation’s eligible applicants with assistance and is distributed based on a formula that is weighted toward cold weather, with only 2.8 percent in FY95 being used for cooling needs;
• Whereas, the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), a program designed to provide low-income households with energy efficient improvements, is underfunded and provides 10 times more funding to states with more heating assistance needs than states that have more cooling needs;
• Whereas, sixteen southern states account for 43 percent of the low-income households in the United States and the majority of the southern states receive significantly less than the national average in the LIHEAP state gross allotments and WAP funding;
• Resolved, that the Southern Governors’ Association urges Congress and the President to provide in any national energy policy increased funding for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) to include a larger proportion of eligible low-income households while equitably addressing both cooling and heating needs.

Supports TANF grants to states.

• Whereas, Congress reformed public assistance in 1996 with the creation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program;
• Whereas, included in this program were modest supplemental grants for 17 relatively poor or rapidly growing states;
• Whereas, nine of the 17 qualifying states are from the South and receive 78.6% of the funding totaling $251 million;
• Whereas, these grants that help southern states provide important services, such as child care, job training and placement, and transportation to low-income families; and
• Whereas, authorization for these grants is set to expire at the end of the 2001 federal fiscal year; now, therefore, be it
• Resolved, that the southern governors call upon Congress to extend for one year the TANF supplemental grants to the 17 identified states:
• Resolved, that Congress should include in its 2002 TANF reauthorization bill provisions that will continue the supplemental grants for poor and fast growing states and use information from the 2000 census to identify any new states that meet the eligibility criteria; and
• Resolved, that Congress should provide adequate funding if new states are identified as being eligible for the supplemental grants.