{"id":9647,"date":"2017-07-26T02:37:43","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T02:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9647"},"modified":"2017-07-27T02:39:22","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T02:39:22","slug":"the-bigotry-baked-into-welfare-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-bigotry-baked-into-welfare-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"The bigotry baked into welfare cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/sanford-schram-391340\">Sanford Schram<\/a>, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/cuny-graduate-center-2545\">CUNY Graduate Center<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/budget.house.gov\/budgets\/fy18\/\">budget blueprint<\/a> the House of Representatives recently unveiled isn\u2019t a carbon copy of President Donald Trump\u2019s proposal, dubbed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/sites\/whitehouse.gov\/files\/omb\/budget\/fy2018\/budget.pdf\">A New Foundation for American Greatness<\/a>.\u201d But they would both make what\u2019s left of the already tattered safety net for the poor a lot weaker.<\/p>\n<p>As a scholar of American poverty and the policies meant to alleviate it, I find that one of the most troubling things about these cuts is the role of bigotry. Like other politicians before him, Trump uses \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/dog-whistle-politics-9780190229252?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;\">dog whistles<\/a>\u201d \u2013 coded racist messages \u2013 to demonize the poor, signal that they don\u2019t deserve support and justify cutbacks. <\/p>\n<p>Trump is perhaps more apt to disparage noncitizens than some of his predecessors and he tends to be more explicit when he <a href=\"http:\/\/billmoyers.com\/story\/dog-whistle-politics-racism\/\">smears nonwhites<\/a> while using terms like \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/business\/archive\/2016\/10\/trump-african-american-inner-city\/503744\/\">inner cities<\/a>\u201d as shorthand for African-Americans and \u201cthe illegals\u201d to disparage Latinos. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realdonaldtrump\/status\/486861543444070401\"><\/a>\n           <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>          <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Baffled experts<\/h2>\n<p>Consider what <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2017\/06\/22\/trump-in-iowa-president-calls-for-barring-immigrants-from-welfare-for-five-years.html\">Trump told supporters<\/a> at an Iowa rally in June:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe time has come for new immigration rules that say \u2026 those seeking immigration into our country must be able to support themselves financially and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This baffled experts since immigrants are already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/issues\/economic-support\/overview-immeligfedprograms\/\">barred from receiving welfare<\/a> in most cases. But Trump has also proposed preventing undocumented immigrants from getting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/trump-calls-to-cut-off-tax-breaks-for-illegal-immigrants\/article\/2623845\">earned income and child tax credits<\/a>, even if they have U.S.-born citizen children.<\/p>\n<p>As scholars like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.berkeley.edu\/our-faculty\/faculty-profiles\/ian-haney-lopez\/\">Ian Haney L\u00f3pez<\/a> argue, Trump\u2019s dog-whistling about newcomers casts them as nonwhites who pose a threat to white America.<\/p>\n<h2>Cuts upon cuts<\/h2>\n<p>This demonization has laid the groundwork for some of the harshest cuts Trump has proposed, which take aim at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/policy-basics-an-introduction-to-tanf\">Temporary Assistance for Needy Families<\/a> (TANF). The states administer this time-limited welfare program with strict work requirements, parceling out those funds as they see fit. Less than half of the money covers cash payments to the poor and child care programs. The rest funds job training and other priorities, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/despite-inclusion-of-marriage-promotion-funding-budget-bill-would-penalize-states-that\">encouraging marriage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Spending on TANF has already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/blog\/president-trumps-budget-cuts-tanf-despite-stated-goal-to-reduce-poverty-boost-work\">fallen by a third<\/a> in inflation-adjusted dollars since the federal government \u201creformed\u201d the welfare system in 1996. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the program that morphed into TANF, supported 4.7 million families in 1995 \u2013 76 percent of the nation\u2019s poor families. By 2015, the number of poor families getting TANF benefits had fallen to 1.5 million, representing roughly 23 percent of that population.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"GaCfi\" class=\"tc-infographic-datawrapper\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/GaCfi\/5\/\" height=\"400px\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"Yaoyj\" class=\"tc-infographic-datawrapper\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/Yaoyj\/6\/\" height=\"400px\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Yet, Trump\u2019s budget calls for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/blog\/president-trumps-budget-cuts-tanf-despite-stated-goal-to-reduce-poverty-boost-work\">cutting TANF by another 13 percent<\/a>, a US$2.2 billion reduction in the 2018 fiscal year. Trump\u2019s proposed cuts are not limited to TANF and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/white-house\/trump-budget-would-cut-safety-net-programs-boost-defense-spending-n763236\">span the entire safety net<\/a>, including large cuts for spending on food stamps \u2013 now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, housing assistance and other programs. <\/p>\n<p>If the cuts go through, they will hit millions of low-income families hard. As spending on assistance has declined over the past two decades, the number of American families living on as little <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twodollarsaday.com\">$2 per person per day<\/a> has tripled, according to some estimates. The 1.5 million households in that demographic include about three million children.<\/p>\n<figure>\n            <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"260\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wyieyMwWgoM?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Getting by on $2 a day requires selling plasma and resorting to other survival strategies, scholar Kathryn J. Edin explained in this PBS NewsHour interview.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Dog whistles<\/h2>\n<p>Since Trump campaigned as a different kind of Republican who would not cut basic social welfare programs, his proposed budget cuts violate some of his promises. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,\u201d Trump pledged in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2017\/01\/20\/his-own-words-president-trumps-inaugural-address\/96836330\/\">inauguration speech<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s one explanation that I think explains this duplicity: He really only meant whites. Using bigotry to demonize immigrants, the poor and others helps solidify support among his base by playing on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.people-press.org\/2017\/04\/17\/1-views-of-trump\/\">their prejudices<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>When tea party Republicans started getting elected in 2010, they reignited a politics of bigotry to resist Barack Obama, the first U.S. nonwhite president. <a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.1540-5907.2011.00577.x\/abstract\">Michael Tesler<\/a>, a University of California, Riverside professor, calls this the \u201cObama effect.\u201d Trump\u2019s candidacy and presidency have built on that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politifact.com\/truth-o-meter\/article\/2017\/jun\/27\/trump-says-time-has-come-immigration-law-barring-i\/\">resurgent prejudice<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s dog-whistling got louder when he took it upon himself to become a leader of the so-called \u201cbirther\u201d movement to spread unfounded suspicions that Obama was a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2016\/09\/09\/politics\/donald-trump-birther\/index.html\">Kenyan-born Muslim<\/a>, with comments like this one from 2011.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cObama &#8220;doesn\u2019t have a birth certificate, or if he does, there\u2019s something on that certificate that is very bad for him. Now, somebody told me \u2013 and I have no idea if this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be \u2013 that where it says \u2018religion,\u2019 it might have \u2018Muslim.\u2019 And if you\u2019re a Muslim, you don\u2019t change your religion, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Whereas Republican presidential nominee John McCain was quick to <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4866404\/john-mccain-barack-obama-arab-cancer\/\">refute<\/a> such lies when he ran against Obama in 2008, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/attn\/videos\/926428204059306\/\">Trump indulged these smears <\/a>. As he leveraged this racial resentment, he acquired support among a white nationalist base that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/opinion\/articles\/2016-08-19\/why-donald-trumps-kkk-and-white-supremacist-supporters-matter\">endorsed his presidency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realdonaldtrump\/status\/227504536317734912\"><\/a>\n           <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>          <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Us versus them<\/h2>\n<p>Trump\u2019s repeated smears about Obama\u2019s nationality and religion were more than an attempt to discredit his predecessor. They not only conveyed a coded message that Obama wasn\u2019t qualified to lead our country but by extension a sense that communities of color were undeserving. <\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s rhetoric amplifies an \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/daily\/intelligencer\/2017\/05\/the-trump-budget-is-based-on-discredited-delusions.html\">us versus them<\/a>\u201d perspective that suggests his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2017\/05\/white-working-class-trump-cultural-anxiety\/525771\/\">white supporters<\/a> are the real victims. He signals that he will stand up for them and against supposed interlopers threatening their well-being and safety.<\/p>\n<p>Racism has always hampered American poverty alleviation, but starting in the 1960s, <a href=\"http:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/chicago\/W\/bo3633527.html\">consistently misleading media coverage<\/a> and cynical politicians led the American public to mistakenly consider welfare a \u201cblack program\u201d that mostly serves undeserving non-whites, as political scientist Martin Gilens has documented.<\/p>\n<p>That is far from the case today. Only 30 percent of the families getting TANF benefits were black <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acf.hhs.gov\/ofa\/resource\/characteristics-and-financial-circumstances-of-tanf-recipients-fiscal-year-2015\">in 2015<\/a>, while 28 percent were non-Hispanic white and 37 percent Latino. The remaining 6 percent were either Asian-American or the government put them into different ethnic categories. Combined, the number of non-Hispanic whites and Hispanic whites together total <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/prod\/2011pubs\/p70-127.pdf\">just over half<\/a> the welfare population. <\/p>\n<h2>Welfare discrimination at the state level<\/h2>\n<p>In my research, I have found that bigotry colors how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/research\/family-income-support\/state-fact-sheets-how-states-have-spent-funds-under-the-tanf-block\">states administer welfare<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>A 2001 study I co-authored showed that the generosity of a state\u2019s welfare program tends to be correlated with the share of its beneficiaries who are white. States where <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/2669347?origin=JSTOR-pdf\">people of color<\/a> represent a majority on the welfare rolls generally make their benefits more meager and impose tough eligibility requirements. The handful of states like Oregon \u2013 where two-thirds of TANF <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/business\/archive\/2016\/05\/welfare-utopia\/484607\/\">recipients are white<\/a> \u2013 usually run the most <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urban.org\/research\/publication\/why-does-cash-welfare-depend-where-you-live\/view\/full_report\">generous welfare programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/mississippi-reject-welfare-applicants-57701ca3fb13\">Mississippi<\/a>, for example, pays at most $170 a month to families of three that somehow get approved and enrolled. Only 1.42 percent of the state\u2019s 11,000 TANF applicants last year managed to clear that hurdle, according to state data obtained by ThinkProgress. More than four out of five of Mississippi\u2019s 14,061 TANF beneficiaries were black in 2015 and only eight out of every 100 poor families in Mississippi got these benefits. In comparison, 43 out of every 100 poor families <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/sites\/default\/files\/atoms\/files\/tanf_spending_or.pdf\">in Oregon<\/a> were TANF beneficiaries, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.edu.au\/content\/81241\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>Trump is only the latest politician to deploy dog whistles to leverage bigotry. Like the many other politicians who did this long before he joined in, he is using coded disparagement to justify slashing aid to people facing extreme economic hardship.<\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/sanford-schram-391340\">Sanford Schram<\/a>, Professor of Political Science, Hunter College, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/cuny-graduate-center-2545\">CUNY Graduate Center<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a>. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-bigotry-baked-into-welfare-cuts-81241\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sanford Schram, CUNY Graduate Center The budget blueprint the House of Representatives recently unveiled isn\u2019t a carbon copy of President Donald Trump\u2019s proposal, dubbed \u201cA New Foundation for American Greatness.\u201d But they would both make what\u2019s left of the already tattered safety net for the poor a lot weaker. As a scholar of American poverty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,277],"tags":[2012,2069,2240,2825,1602,2824],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9649,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647\/revisions\/9649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}