[US] Barbara Lee introduces bill to end poverty

From San Francisco Bay View

Says Katrina highlights the 'Two Americas'

by Nathan Britton

Washington - In the wake of the devastation of hurricane Katrina, Rep. Barbara Lee introduced a bill calling on the Bush administration to create a poverty eradication plan.

"If anyone had any doubts that there are two Americas, hurricane Katrina and our government's shameful response to it have made the division clear for all to see," said Lee. "The brutal truth is that people died in New Orleans because they were poor, and the indifference to the most vulnerable among us is not isolated to this tragedy, it is part and parcel of a systemic problem that our nation must overcome."

Nearly 30 percent of the population of New Orleans was living below the poverty line. Twenty-one percent of the households earned less than $10,000 a year. Eighty-four percent of the people living in poverty in New Orleans were Black.

Overall, almost 36 million Americans are living below the poverty line, which the Census Bureau defines as $14,680 per year for a family of three. More than 15 million are living in extreme poverty, which is defined as less than half of poverty income.

Lee's bill affirms the obligation of the United States to improve the lives of the millions of Americans living in poverty and extreme poverty and calls upon President Bush to submit a plan to eradicate poverty by 2010.

The following is a statement Congresswoman Lee gave on the House floor last week, relating to the issue of poverty and the response to Katrina:

"Mr. Speaker,

"The devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina has torn down the curtain and exposed the dirty secret that divides our nation like an open wound.

"If anyone ever doubted that there were two Americas, hurricane Katrina and our government's shameful response to it have made the division clear for all to see.

"The brutal fact is that people died in this tragedy because they were poor.

"New Orleans is a city where 67 percent of the population was black. Nearly 30 percent - one in three people - were living below the poverty line. Twenty-one percent of the households earned less than $10,000 a year. Eighty-four percent of the people living in poverty in New Orleans were Black.

"So when disaster came, the people who had cash in the bank and a car in the garage escaped, and those who did not were shamefully left to fend for themselves.

"The Bush administration's response to Katrina has been nothing short of shameful, and there are a number of important questions that must be answered.

"Why did federal officials ignore predictions of a disastrous flood in New Orleans?

"Why did FEMA turn away assistance, telling Amtrak it didn't need its help evacuating survivors, denying the Red Cross access to New Orleans, turning away three trailer trucks from WalMart that were loaded with water and preventing the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel?

"Why has the FEMA budget been cut since 2003?

"Why have the last two directors of FEMA been political appointees who had no experience with disaster management?

"As one commentator said recently, 'Actions have consequences.' No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell."

"Michael Brown should resign immediately, or he should be fired.

"I am also supporting a bill introduced by Rep. Dingell that would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and would require that the director of FEMA have experience in disaster management.

"I am also prompted to wonder what the tragic results were of having so many of our national guard fighting an unnecessary war in Iraq, when they could have been responding to this disaster.

"The incompetence and indifference demonstrated by the administration in responding to this tragedy was shocking, but it wasn't surprising. Does anyone doubt that if this sort of devastation had taken place in the communities where the small percentage of people who are benefiting from the Bush administration's tax cuts live, the response would have been swift and efficient? Can you imagine Bush pioneers, desperately clinging to their roofs, waiting for days to be rescued?

"This indifference to the most vulnerable among us is not isolated to this tragedy. It is part and parcel of a systemic problem that seeks to make a large sector of our population invisible.

"Many people, viewing the human tragedy left in Katrina's wake, could not recognize the images they were seeing. They thought they were witnessing a tragedy in Somalia, or Sudan. They think to themselves, this does not look like the America that I know.

"Some have even come to refer to the survivors of this catastrophe as 'refugees,' as if the images of the survivors they are seeing are too foreign for them to recognize them as Americans. The people you see on television are not refugees; they are American citizens.

"For some of us, however, this is an America we know too well, an America that is too often swept under the rug by lawmakers and the media.

"The truth is there are almost 36 million Americans living in poverty in the United States today. There are more than 15 million living in extreme poverty.

"What does that mean? According to the Census Bureau, it means that a family of three is living on less than $14,680 a year. They define extreme poverty as half of that.

"In 2002-2003 the number of children living in extreme poverty grew by half a million.

"Since President Bush took office, the number of poor people in America has grown by 17 percent.

"This is the real state of the ownership society. And it is unacceptable. The Bush administration's policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and cutting funding for the programs that help the most vulnerable in order to pay for this unnecessary war in Iraq are only making matters worse.

"That is why I have introduced legislation calling on President Bush to present a plan to end poverty in this nation. It is time to start moving in the right direction again, and the first step is for the Bush administration to acknowledge that there is a problem.

"America has been shocked by the images that have exposed this terrible divide in our nation. It is up to us now to decide whether our government has a responsibility to help improve the lives of the millions of Americans who are living in poverty or whether we will abandon them to the dirty water, to fend for themselves."