[US] Politics, priorities stand in way of national war on poverty

From USA Today

By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Hurricane Katrina brought poor people directly into American living rooms. Then, amid the images of hardship, the Census Bureau said poverty had risen for the fourth straight year.

Is the nation at a crossroads, about to experience a dramatic shift in its politics and priorities?

Hurricane Katrina has sparked hopes and calls for a new national resolve to end poverty. But the public may not be mobilized for such a crusade.

Two-thirds of those in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll this month said the country is not spending enough to fight poverty. Yet such sentiment cannot be attributed to Katrina; 69% said the same thing more than a year ago in a University of Chicago Poll.

Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster, says his pre- and post-Katrina surveys show voter priorities are unchanged. Asked what would most influence their vote for Congress next year, their top issues are Iraq, terrorism and jobs.

Even assuming the public would support a national war on poverty, many analysts say it's not likely to happen. One reason is the cost of Gulf Coast recovery, combined with the expense of the Iraq war and President Bush's drive for more tax cuts. "Yes, Katrina has shined a light on poverty," says Sheila Zedlewski, director of the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute. "But we have a competing problem and that is the federal deficit," which the White House estimated to be $333 billion this year.

Another problem is the divide between liberals and conservatives on how to fight poverty. More government programs or more run by churches? Direct help or tax cuts?

"We all want to solve poverty," says Donald Devine, vice chairman of the American Conservative Union. "The question is, will we do it the way we did it in 1932, or have we learned something since then?"

The New Deal looks pretty good to some Democrats. Former vice presidential nominee John Edwards, director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina, praised three Depression-era programs this week and proposed a job creation program for the Gulf Coast. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., wants a Gulf Coast Redevelopment Authority modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Bush's plan includes tax incentives for business, vouchers to help displaced parents pay for private and parochial schools, relaxed environmental regulations and suspension of a requirement that federal contractors pay workers prevailing local wages. All are part of a long-standing GOP agenda.

Calls for a more expansive fight against poverty are coming from many quarters. First lady Laura Bush told the Associated Press she hopes Katrina helps the country respond "in a different way" to poverty and racial problems. "A large percentage of our population probably doesn't realize what inner cities are really like and has looked away from that," she said Tuesday.

Most of those calling for broad-based action are Democrats or clergy. "We can no longer be a nation that overlooks the poor and the suffering," T.D. Jakes, pastor of a Dallas megachurch, said at a memorial service for Katrina victims.

Edwards, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry are among the Democrats pressing to turn Katrina into a pivotal moment. "Will we be satisfied to only do the immediate: care for the victims and rebuild the city?" Kerry, his party's 2004 presidential nominee, asked Monday in a speech at Brown University. "Or will we be inspired to tackle ... the societal injustice that left so many of the least fortunate waiting and praying on those rooftops?"

Charlie Cook, publisher of a political report, says Republicans "need to soften some of their hard edges or run the risk of losing their majorities" in the House and Senate. They would be smart, he says, to talk broadly about fighting poverty.

Are there any steps that could bridge the gap between parties? Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review, suggests "a grand right-left bargain" in which liberals focus on preventing illegitimate births and conservatives support more urban spending.

Zedlewski says Katrina has revealed "a fragmented safety net" with many separate programs and sets of rules. It's so difficult to navigate that there may be bipartisan support for streamlining, she says: "People on both sides of the aisle would like to see this support system work better than it does."

Such consequences would be modest compared with those from the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire that led to workplace reforms and the modern labor movement, and the 1927 Mississippi River flood that prompted a government response foreshadowing the New Deal.

But some leaders say even a discussion with no immediate results would be better than the pre-Katrina silence. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says his city has the highest poverty rate in the country. "I'm amazed at how little the issue of poverty is raised in the Congress," he says. "Hurricane Katrina is an opportunity for us to engage in that debate."