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incentives to corporations invest- ing benefits and changing food SSBG is repealed, 4 million chil-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:
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Events
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Observe
Federal Government For
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children – not just the wealthiest
tion
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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
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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
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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.