Heart of Targ is a fine meal with Romulan Ale!
Posted on 01/21/2005 6:54:19 AM PST by JesseHousman
OUR OPINION: PROTECT FUNDS THAT HELP CITIES, RESIDENTS THRIVE
The Bush administration has proposed deep cuts in funding for economic development and anti-poverty programs, perhaps up to 50 percent. Officials say that the move will save money, streamline bureaucracy and avoid duplication.
But these good-government principles come at human cost that can exceed money saved. A severe reduction in community-development block grants will hobble successful programs that provide affordable housing to low- and moderate-income families, feed seniors on fixed incomes or boost students' academic achievement in after-school programs.
Better neighborhoods
South Florida, where block grants have improved neighborhood infrastructure and helped seniors keep their homes, will take a hit, too. Congressional lawmakers must make the case that city and state budgets are so stretched that they cannot fill the funding gap.
Congress has budgeted about $5 billion for block grants in fiscal year 2006. Though the White House has not released its budget plan for that year, administration officials say that funding cuts will help the president reach his goal of eliminating ineffective programs.
Social-service and economic-development initiatives that don't live up to their commitments, or are rife with abuse, are a waste of money. But lawmakers should make sure that good programs don't get thrown out with the bad.
Block-grant funding has steadily declined for the past three years. Miami receives $10 million, down from $12 million; Fort Lauderdale's appropriation of nearly $10 million will be reduced by almost $320,000 next year.
As a result, fewer people will have access to important programs that provide day care, meals, home rehabilitation.
Such services do more than make life easier for recipients. By feeding kids and seniors, they are less likely to need expensive public-health care. When funds help poor seniors keep their homes in good repair, they sustain property values in the neighborhood. After-school programs keep kids off the street. They engage in sports and learning, not risky behavior or criminal activity.
Block grants, properly spent, save money and enhance residents' quality of life. Congress should protect these benefits by protecting grant funds.
Exactly.
It is time to fire the nanny state.
Yeah. Make everyone pay their own way.
Am psyched that this admin might actually stop propping up the feckless and the lazy.
the Great Freaking Society was successful in replacing the guy at the head of the supper table with a welfare check!
Heart of Targ is a fine meal with Romulan Ale!
Aller Tag trinke ich schnapps!
There is no such thing as a free lunch when I get the bill.
If poor people didn't get the subsidy, they would seek other ways to survive, like getting a job. Daycare subsidy might be ok if the parent is working or attending college to qualify for better employment. But people have to realize that if there is wasteful spending, everyone on the teat is going to feel the cuts.
And in government terms, a cut in funding usually means that they will not recieve as much money this year as they asked for, but might have to make do with the same amount they got last year. A cut in funding usually means there will be no new money available, not less as is the inference.
"The Bush administration has proposed deep cuts in funding..." for big cities that overwhelmingly voted against him.
Amen to your Amen! And how many generations of welfare queens do we have now -- two, three, four???
The only thing our government should be paying for is support to Vets and day care to those that are working AND going to school to better their skills for higher pay, and the daycare should be for no longer than 2 years.
This sounds like good news but I doubt that it will go as far as it should given the certain hysterical opposition which it is sure to generate in the RATmedia. It is after all squarely aimed at the RAT source of power.
Also there is a cut in spending, and there is slowing the growth.
I want a cut.
The recipients threw their garbage out the windows, while their caseworkes gave them new davenports and refrigerators!
I took another look at this response and immediate saw that I had meant to say "criminality."
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