The Newshour on Welfare Reform and On Bloggers and the Media

Great story tonight on the Newshour (with Jim Lehrer) about welfare reform and how it is working, or not. The conlusion of one expert is that on the margins most kids are a little better off but on the whole the cycle of poverty, lack of education, and early pregnancy is unbroken. The report raises the fair question if poverty and chaos still reign in the homes of people who have moved from welfare to work, whether welfare reform is meeting its goals.

I have to think that forcing people off the welfare rolls without consideration of whether they can meet basic needs such as adequate child care, housing, or food obviously does a disservice to society, let alone the people directly affected.

It is a sign of the times in which we live and a reminder that people scratching out a subsistence living are nothing more than the effluent of the Bush machine. I am constantly amazed and outraged that some (not all) of the most overtly "religious" among us have forgotten about economic and social justice and the plight of children who are innocent of anything other than being born into poverty.

The motto for this White House ought to be: "I've got mine."

The story on bloggers had Jay Rosen of Columbia law school, David Gergen, and some pasty young puffy boy from Natinal Review Online. They spent most of the time talking about Eason Jordan, and a moment on J.D. Guckert. Really not enlightening discussion.