DEPRESSION- ERA FOOD LINES

George W. Bush's America as seen by CBS News: Bread lines, reminiscent of the Depression-era, made up of average Americans with jobs. Over video of a long line in Marietta, Ohio, on the January 8 60 Minutes II, Scott Pelley ominously intoned: "The lines we found looked like they'd been taken from the pages of the Great Depression. It's not just the unemployed, we found plenty of people working full-time but still not able to earn enough to keep hunger out the house. If you think you have a good idea of who's hungry in America today, come join the line. You'd never guess who you'd meet there."

While Pelley never uttered the name George W. Bush once during his 12 minute piece, the implication came through. Pelley noted, for instance, how "since 1999, the number of people getting emergency food aid in Ohio alone has grown from 2 million to 4.5 million." Pelley contended in relaying the view of a groups which wants more government spending: "Nationwide, the problem is not just in rural scenes like this. The U.S. Conference of Mayors says the need for emergency food aid in major cities jumped 19 percent last year alone."

Pelley's emotions over facts style of reporting included this line: "Pre-schoolers come here with their parents and play in boxes as empty as the day's want-ads."

Pelley asked, "When you look at this line, what do you see?" And answered the question himself: "You know what I see? Some pretty average looking Americans." When Pelley suggested "a lot of people in this country would be surprised to see this line, surprised to see a food line in America again," a local Ohio food bank operator declared in a comment which ended the story: "Oh yeah, we've gone backwards. This is what I heard from my mom and dad. This is what it was during the Depression era. That, you know, people stood in line to get government commodities. We haven't come very far, have we?"

Though Pelley highlighted some heartbreaking cases, he refrained from examining the poor personal decisions which led his victim families to their plight. All the families he looked at receive food stamps.

Pelley began his report, which was brought to my attention by MRC analyst Brian Boyd: "We met some people standing in a line the other day, a nurse with a new baby, an army vet, three ladies who spent a lifetime working in the same factory. All of them and hundreds more were drawn to the line by hunger. We are about to show you bread lines in America that you may find hard to believe. With the recession there has been a sudden leap in the number of people on emergency food assistance. The lines we found looked like they'd been taken from the pages of the Great Depression. It's not just the unemployed, we found plenty of people working full-time but still not able to earn enough to keep hunger out the house. If you think you have a good idea of who's hungry in America today, come join the line. You'd never guess who you'd meet there."

Over video of a long line Pelley explained: "This is the head of a food line forming outside Marietta, Ohio. We're going to show you the end but that will take a while. The people in front came at dawn. Sometimes the food runs out before the line does. So it's best to get in early. "They've come with empty boxes and baskets and little red wagons and if they wait, up to five hours, they carry away groceries that will last a few days. Lately, the food's been coming once every few weeks. And each time the crowd is getting larger, stretching like the line on a graph marking the recession. "This day, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, the line was the longest it's been. Through the fair ground parking lot, out to the street and beyond. How many? We counted 896. One line from a thousand walks of life."

Pelley asked a woman: "Why do you have to come here?" Marslyn (sp?) Clark: "Because we really, my husband really doesn't make enough for all of our groceries." Pelley: "Is he working full-time?" Clark: "He works full-time." Pelley: "Usually Marslyn and her husband both work, but Marslyn is taking time off now for her new born, a girl named Autumn." Clark: "I'm a nurse and I have a good job, but this is just something that we have to do to get by right now."

After showcasing a veteran of World War II and the Great Depression, Pelley turned to Bob Garbo, head of the local affiliate of America's Second Harvest. He opined: "This is going in my mind backwards, I mean this is, we're doing things that we did before food stamps, before we had various programs. And quite frankly it's a little bit hard to watch sometimes." Pelley added: "Bob Garbo is watching as head of the local affiliate of the non-profit group America's Second Harvest. The food being distributed in his line comes mostly from government programs and from private donations. "This day the line grew so long that they brought an extra truck -- they hadn't done that before. But since 1999, the number of people getting emergency food aid in Ohio alone has grown from 2 million to 4.5 million. There are a lot of reasons: housing costs are rising and medical costs. Unemployment is up, and many jobs that are available are minimum wage." Garbo: "Our jobs are not high paying jobs. In rural America most of these jobs folks are getting when they come off of public assistance are $6 and $7 and hour jobs -- with no benefits, by the way."

Pelley soon profiled his first victim: "The issue is the working poor. Forty percent of the families in these lines have one parent working. Rick Payne is working full time in one of those big home improvement stores. But he's supporting a wife and four kids on $7.50 an hour. When we sat down with Payne, his wife Alexis and 12-year-old, Brandon, they had $17 to their name."

On a 40 hour a week basis over 50 weeks $7.50 an hour would total, by my calculation, $15,000 a year. Plus, as Pelley noted, the Paynes get $300 a month in food stamps. Yet at the end of the month they live on potato soup. Sounds to me like really bad money management.

Trying to generate viewer sympathy, Pelley asserted: "Almost half the people fed by these lines are kids. The Agriculture Department figures one out of six children in America faces hunger. That's more than 12 million kids. Nationwide wide children have the highest poverty rate. Pre-schoolers come here with their parents and play in boxes as empty as the day's want-ads."

Pelley talked with kids who wanted food and then profiled a woman who said she must mix milk with water to make it last for her baby, though she gets both welfare and food stamps.

Pelley conceded: "Most of the people in line don't look like they're starving. We noticed some were even overweight. But hunger in America isn't starvation, it's malnutrition -- children too hungry to concentrate in school, the pain of skipped meals. There may be some in line who are taking unfair advantage of a free food program even if they have to wait for hours. But it's also true that many in these lines are new to hunger: losing jobs or getting hit with medical bills, for example, just months or weeks ago. "We visited another line in McArthur, Ohio, where the holidays were closing in and so was the weather. This line is about 40 percent longer than it was just three years ago. Nationwide, the problem is not just in rural scenes like this. The U.S. Conference of Mayors says the need for emergency food aid in major cities jumped 19 percent last year alone."

On to his third victim family, Pelley highlighted a woman whose marriage broke up and the kids now only can eat at school, but the 12-year-old brings some food home. The family supposedly can't eat, yet Pelley reported they get $700 a month in welfare and food stamps.

Garbo compared the situation to the fear of terrorism: "I'll tell you in all honesty I sense a fear. It's a fear. We talk about terror nowadays. The terror is fear. And if you really get to visit with families who are really up against it, there's a fear."

Back to the Payne family, they figured out you can work more than just one job and now make some money for cleaning their church each Sunday. But, and in the TV world of victims there is always a but, the father teared-up as he related how he cannot afford to pay his son the promised $5 a week for helping with the church clean-up.

Pelley wrapped up his anecdotal piece with this exchange between himself and Garbo: "When you look at this line, what do you see?" Garbo: "You see pain." Pelley: "You know what I see? Some pretty average looking Americans." Garbo: "Oh yeah, sure, this is southeast Ohio, buddy. This is it, this is it and you'll see this pretty well all over the country probably." Pelley: "I think a lot of people in this country would be surprised to see this line, surprised to see a food line in America again." Garbo: "Oh yeah, we've gone backwards. This is what I heard from my mom and dad. This is what it was during the Depression era. That, you know, people stood in line to get government commodities. We haven't come very far, have we?"

If true, that would be quite an indictment of the billions spend in the war on poverty, but Pelley didn't broach that liberal failure.

As for how the Bush era has brought us full circle to Hoover, remember that the GDP is growing at a healthy rate, inflation, which most ravages the poor, is at a historically low level, unemployment is at barely 6 percent, well below where it stood in 1980, and the full welfare state is humming and sending out checks and food stamps to all of the poor.

For the Web-posted version of Pelley's story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/08/60II/main535732.shtml

For a picture and bio of Pelley: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/06/23/60II/main51732.shtml

George Bush's economic certainly leaves something to be desired. Just look at the data http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/charter.exe/fedstl/unemploy+1993+2003+0+0+0+290+545++0 Unemployment is skyrocketing and Bush's only solution is a windfall for the rich. How many unemployed people do you know who recieve substantial dividends or capital gains?

You need to learn some economics. Government produces NOTHING, it can only take from those who produce. If government takes less, there is more production, and therefore more for everyone. By the way what did "The Rich" ever do to you, except maybe give you job. To be rewarded by your petty envy?

I lived in Argentina for a year and saw people who were REALLY poor. They had cardboard houses next to the freeway and naked children because they had NO clothes, and no food, running water or sewage treatment or ANYTHING.

I do some work with a food bank now, and you would be amazed at how much most of these people have. Many of them just do the circuit, getting the free goodies from several charities, and sit on their butts and relax. Never have their cable TV (color tv of course) turned off.

The difference between now and depression era is that back then it was shameful to take charity. Now it is quite acceptable, so there are a lot more doing it "just because it's there".

Pure fear mongering, that's all. The societal engineers want as many dependent on the central authority as possible, for obvious reasons. The 'lieberal' bilge spittle is directed toward making the focus the economy, over all other issues. It's all about trying to get back in power now that Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House. Democrats and their stooges would love to see bread riots, whether warranted or not, just to manipulate the psyche of the voting public. [WG is so full of bitterness over the Bush administration being in power that he would destroy this nation to get at the change he and his bitter ilk seeks.]

"Unemployment is skyrocketing and Bush's only solution is a windfall for the rich."

Welcome to Free Republic.

I've read the Bush tax plan, and I am going to benefit by it. After all, I have kids, and he increases the child credit. My parents and in-laws, both retired, will benefit from the proposals, because their retirement plans benefit from the elimination of double-taxation of dividends.

As will every couple where both the husband and wife work, due to the elimination of the marriage penalty.

While I am earning more than $50K, I -- and my in-laws and parents -- are all earning well under $100K/year. So is that fireman husband, teacher wife couple pulling in $75K/year. Now, I never though of myself, my parents, in-laws, or that working couple as rich, but, I guess we *must* be. After all we are all benefitting from Bush's "windfall for the rich." So by your definition, I guess, by golly, I am rich.

But if you cut taxes, then only the "rich" are going to benefit, because only the "rich" pay taxes. (This is a tautology, btw, because according to the Democrats, you have to be rich to benefit from tax cuts.)

If you make $30K or less, the EIC pays back more than what you pay in payroll taxes, so only households making $50K or more a year "pay" taxes. So if you *are* going to give a tax cut, by that logic, only those paying taxes -- the rich -- can get a cut.

Even if the "rich" were truly rich, why does that matter? If your fear is unemployment, you want to create jobs. And as Phil Gramm use to say, "I never got a job from a poor man."

Unless your definition of quality jobs is leaning on a shovel, employed in a redistribute-the-money public works position.

George Bush's economic certainly leaves something to be desired.

Yes, in comparison to the vast wealth and full employment enjoyed in post-Soviet Russia, or in still-socialist Cuba, where everyone's malnourished and the biggest whine is that the evil, capitalist/imperialist USA won't trade with it.

The seeds of every peak and trough in a business cycle are planted in the policies made two years earlier. That means we're still in the Clinton Economy.

AFAIK food stamps cannot be used to buy prepared food. But they CAN be traded, at say, 50 cents on the dollar, for cash which can then be spent on booze, drugs, Mickey D's or whatever. Anyone on food stamps BTW is getting plenty for food if they buy it in supermarkets and prepare it at home. I have known people on food stamps (Nowadays actually a debit card I believe)who get considerably more than my food budget. I'm with you; poor management, not a shortage of resources, is the problem.

"If you are a middle-class person your stocks are in a 401(k), your dividends are already tax-sheltered. The big breaks go only to the rich. Most of the distribution tables you will see are wrong. The lost tax revenue has to be made up from somewhere. If it is made up by a tax proportional to incomes (as seems reasonable), you are a probable loser unless your income is more than $135,000..."

Of course, the hooey in this statement is the bolded text. Mr. Delong assumes:

(a) that earnings are static -- that the economy is a zero-sum game. This is nonsense from the get-go. Government revenues (taxes collected) skyrocketed after both the Kennedy and Reagan tax cuts. (Why? Because the money retained by the public -- aka "the rich" -- was reinvested into the economy, more jobs were created, more income was generated, and more taxes were collected.)

(b) He considers it reasonable to "make up" decrease in tax revenues only through increased taxes. Cutting spending -- or even reducing the rate of increase in spending is taken off the table.

Get real.

Unless we are talking illness or medical disabilities and perhaps abusive situations, etc, people made bad life decisions and that is why they wound up dependent on government handouts.Until responsibility for one's own actions and morality is instilled into the youth of our Country..nothing will change.

Dannetta Graves, director of Montgomery County's Job and Family Services, said her agency has chosen not to support Bush's marriage plan because, as she told Congress, "Not all of (the children in a family) have the same father, so which family are we trying to form?

Ms. Graves ,We're spending about 2 billion a year in various state and federal funds to substitute for the breakdown of the family. There is a governmental interest in stable marriages not only from the cost point of view alone, but also from the "morality..a lesson to the child"point of view for the welfare of those kids in the decisions they make down the road regarding how they will choose to live thier own adult lives.

The Lost Boys walking 1000 miles across Africa after their parents were butchered by Islamic Fundamentalists, eating mud. Then before 9/11 coming to this country and being asked how many hours they wanted to work a day..the answer: 16 "so I can save to go to school". They knew education was the key to success.

After 9/11 they proudly raised between themselves (4-5) $400 to give to the victim's families of 9/11. That was unbelieveable to them to be able to help financially on such a grand scale in their eyes.

The program mention above was a totally slanted propaganda piece.

Put up a sign or announce in the newspaper ... FREE COMMODITIES ... FREE FOOD, anywhere, unless there is a system in place to determinine if there is a need, there will be many many people come and stand in line.

Free toys at Christmas where one receives a free toy per child has many that come because it is free, not because there is need. Often, they are completely careless with the toy received casting it aside, before they reach the car.

Commodities have been given for years to many, that do not eat them. The commodities are taken and then sold real cheap and the money is used for beer, cigarettes, drugs, cell phone or pager, etc.. This is done with food stamps as well.

Locally there is a chain that offers Christmas dinner to any one needy over 55. How it actually worked is, over 55's that were eligible because of age made reservations for themselves; and partook of a meal when they needed no assistence of any kind. After all they didn't want to cook and it's a free meal. "Let's go" is the attitude exhibited.

It is sad but true that people will take something they do not want ... if it is free.

The fact that of the money sent to Washington as necessary tax increases, only 25% of the money comes back in the programs. Waste, adminstration, new organizations for monitoring etc. eat it up quickly and the benefit is insufficient. Haven't we learned that the government is grossly inefficient? The Armed Services are what they can manage best? Intra-structure (highway system) which they allocate to the states is another area that functions better at the national level. There are others too. Not welfare.

The government is operationg in the same way as California, and look at the mess with which they are coping. Sorry /rant off.

My former sister in law was on welfare most of the time I was married to her brother (17+ years) (and may well still be), and everyone in her family was grossly obese. Her children would watch me in the kitchen, seemingly sure that I was a wizard because I would make mashed potatoes from potatoes, rather than a box. And the sight of muffins coming from the oven rather than a package was enough to leave them speechless.

This is the same woman who worked under the table and received money regularly received money from her husband; she was first in line for any food or toy giveaway.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --- The Media Research Center took network news anchors and correspondents to task today for their one-sided and biased coverage of President Bush's tax cut proposals. The MRC reviewed network news stories of Bush's new economic stimulus plan and found the same bias it did when it studied economic coverage this past summer.

"The networks are carrying the liberal line of attack against President Bush's tax cut by saying only the rich will benefit. What the networks don't tell viewers is that 96 percent of the taxes in this country are paid by people who make $27,682 or more," said Rich Noyes, MRC’s Research Director. "The media are distorting reality by classifying families earning $28,000 and above as ‘the rich’ and they are distorting reality by claiming these tax cuts are ‘skewed’ in favor of these ‘rich,’" he said.

The MRC's most recent analysis, Shocked By Tax Cuts for Taxpayers, showed that network reporters presented tax cuts as if they were just another government spending program. Balanced coverage would have equally stressed the fact that lower tax rates will promote more working, saving and investing — the kind of positive economic activity that will build a more prosperous nation.

"Reporters seem far more interested in advancing the liberal line of class warfare than actually telling the public the truth. Some of the additional facts they ignore include: the poor have already had their income taxes cut to zero, and that the Democrats' alternative plan only ‘cuts’ taxes for one year just to raise them again the next — a classic bait and switch. So much for Al Gore's criticism of a 'conservative' bias in the media," Noyes said.

Noyes noted the networks’ liberal tilt hasn’t changed since this past summer when the MRC analyzed economic coverage on ABC, CBS, CNN, FNC and NBC and published a special report on the anti-free market bias found throughout the stories. That report, A Summer of Skewed News, is available at http://www.mrc.org/projects/atm/welcome.asp, as part of the MRC's ongoing "Operation: ATM" (Audit the Media).

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