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Opinion ‘Ryanomics’ Assault Poor, Hungry Children D incentives to corporations invest- ing benefits and changing food SSBG is repealed, 4 million chil- ing or taking jobs overseas, sever- stamp eligibility rules nearly 2 dren would lose child care and C HILD al of which alone could generate million children would lose bene- child protective services for 1.7 W ATCH $129 billion over 10 years. It fits, about 22 million children million children and child abuse doesn’t touch the tax advantage would be in households with prevention and intervention for Marian for private equity partners that reduced benefits, and 280,000 640,000 children would be dis- Wright now provides a $15 billion wind- low-income children would lose rupted; Edelman Repeals the Affordable Care Act fall over 10 years or the tax pref- free breakfast and lunch at school. erences for oil and gas companies Ryanomics equals more hungry that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for that cost about $40 billion a children with pre-existing year. Hungry child, conditions, rescinding cov- Ryanomics widens the millions of dollars from child and I didn’t make this world for you. erage when children get family nutrition, health, child care, already huge wealth and You didn’t buy any stock in my railroad. sick, and ensures young You didn’t invest in my corporation. education, and child protection income chasm in our nation adults can stay on their par- Where are your shares in standard oil? services, in order to extend and and only benefits the richest I made the world for the rich ents’ health plans until age Americans and powerful add to the massive Bush tax cuts And the will-be-rich 26. The repeal would put 14 for millionaires and billionaires at corporations while ripping And the have-always-been-rich. million children at risk for a taxpayer cost of $5 trillion over apart already porous safety Not for you, losing health coverage by 10 years. On top of making the nets for vulnerable children. Hungry child. ending the maintenance of Ryanomics masquerades as a Bush tax cuts permanent, the top- — Langston Hughes, “God to Hungry Child” effort protections that pre- income bracket would get an addi- fiscally responsible deficit- vent states from cutting tional 10 percent tax cut. reducing budget plan to pre- children from the Medicaid and Millionaires and billionaires serve our children’s future. In poor children. Ryanomics has no trouble nam- Children’s Health Insurance Pro- would on average keep at least an reality, it is Robin Hood in reverse additional quarter of a million dol- – stealing from babies to benefit ing cuts to programs helping poor gram rolls; Turns Medicaid over to the lars each year and possibly as billionaires and increasing the children and families to pay for massive government handouts for states in the form of a federal much as $400,000 a year, accord- deficit. block grant and cuts spending by the wealthiest. It: Does away with child tax credits $810 billion over 10 years, giving 5 ½ million low income children, states the power to slash eligibili- primarily in immigrant families ty, benefits, and payments to doc- because of a new requirement that tors and hospitals while raising taxpayers must include their costs on the poor. Today, Medicaid Social Security number on tax provides comprehensive health returns to claim the child tax cred- and mental health coverage to it. Working families with incomes nearly 36 million children and has averaging $21,000 a year would helped to reduce the number of see their taxes raised about uninsured children as employer sponsored coverage has eroded $1,800; Eliminates the $1.7 billion and families have struggled during Social Services Block Grant the economic down turn. Ryanomics is not only poor To come up with a portion of the (SSBG) that funds critical services ing to the Citizens for Tax Justice. The Ryan budget does not name Ryan budget’s savings require- for the most vulnerable popula- arithmetic, it is also poor morality or touch any of the many expen- ments, the House Agriculture tions, primarily low and moderate and gross injustice that turns sive tax incentives, tax loopholes committee chose to cut more than income children and adults who upside down the requirements of or tax subsidies that help the pow- $33 billion from food stamps but are elderly or disabled. SSBG all great faiths to protect the poor erful and the wealthy. It doesn’t left subsidies to large profitable serves roughly 23 million people, and vulnerable. The U.S. Catholic close tax loopholes or rein in corporate farms intact. By reduc- about half of whom are children. If Bishops in a letter to every mem- ber of Congress on May 8, 2012 said: “Deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility efforts must protect and not undermine the needs of poor and vulnerable people” and declared that the proposed cuts in the House budget “fail this basic moral test.” The much-publicized “Nuns on the Bus,” Catholic Sis- ters committed to fighting poverty, The Skanner News challenged Ryanomics declaring: Weekend Events Will Observe Federal Government For on your smart phone “We insist on a Faithful Budget go to www. 150th Anniversary of the Emancipa- Finds Cheating on State that affirms the life of all God’s theskannermobile.com children – not just the wealthiest tion Proclamation Highway Construction or scan this QR code few.” And Albert Camus, Nobel with your app. …in NW News Contract Laureate, speaking at a Dominican monastery in 1948 said: “Perhaps …in NW News we cannot prevent this world from Selena Gomez: The ‘Hotel Transyl- being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the vania’ Interview number of tortured children.” He …in Entertainment Department of Jus- described our responsibility as human beings “if not to reduce tice: Portland Police evil, at least not to add to it” and “to refuse to consent to conditions Gary Johnson: An Uphill Battle to Used Excessive Force which torture innocents.” He said, Catch a Wave, Win the Presidency Against People with Mental Illness “I continue to struggle against this universe in which children suffer …in US News …in NW News and die.” And so must all of us including our political leaders of all parties. ietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German Protestant theologian, who was exe- cuted for opposing Hitler’s holo- caust, believed that the test of the morality of a society is how it treats its children. I agree and am deeply ashamed that the United States of America flunks Bonhoef- fer’s test every hour of every day as our policies and priorities per- mit 16.1 million children – more than 1 in 5 – to live in poverty in the richest nation on earth and 7.3 million to live in extreme poverty according to the new Census poverty data. Children under five are our poorest age group with one in four infants, toddlers and preschoolers – who did not choose their parents – poor during their years of great- est brain development. The U.S. Agriculture Department recently reported that a record number of families in America are struggling to put enough food on the table and that one in five children live in a food insecure household. Mil- lions of Americans, many of them hard working parents, have only food stamps to keep the wolves of hunger from their door. Yet, the Ryan budget passed by the House of Representatives not only would do nothing to decrease epidemic poverty, hunger and homelessness during this time of economic downturn and parental joblessness, it would increase their struggles by taking away food and other essential supports. Rya- nomics is an all-out assault on our poorest children while asking not a dime of sacrifice from the richest 2 percent of Americans or from wealthy corporations. Ryanomics slashes hundreds of Children under five are our poorest age group with one in four infants, toddlers and preschoolers – who did not choose their parents – poor during their years of greatest brain development Week on the Web www. The Skanner.com has the latest news from Portland and beyond, on your mobile or your desktop, it’s your go-to place for the news you won’t see in mainstream publications. It’s your community. It’s The Skanner. Page 6 The Seattle Skanner September 19, 2012 Marian Wright Edelman is pres- ident of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more infor- mation go to www.childrensde- fense.org.
