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Special Bulletin: Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty – The New York Times

We were not planning to post anything until our return toward the end of the month. But this morning I ran across a very interesting article in The New York Times that I wanted to share with readers of RINOcracy.com who might not have seen it.
The article describes a report by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institute that combines liberal and conservative thinking to arrive at specific proposals to reduce poverty and inequality. (A link to the full report is included in the article.) Apart from the merits of specific proposals, the report appears to reflect the kind of creative thinking and willingness to compromise that we so badly need.
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Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty

Supporters of a $15 minimum wage at a gathering in November in Manhattan. A group of liberal and conservative economists produced a plan on alleviating poverty. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

Supporters of a $15 minimum wage at a gathering in November in Manhattan. A group of liberal and conservative economists produced a plan on alleviating poverty. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

If you have been paying any attention to America’s paralyzed politics, you are not going to believe this.

Read More »Special Bulletin: Finding Common Political Ground on Poverty – The New York Times

Blog No. 47. Single Parents, Parenting and Poverty.

In recent years, some conservatives have expended time, effort and money in arguing (without benefit of any credible evidence) that recognizing same sex marriage would somehow undermine traditional marriage. The end of that era may be in sight with the action of the Supreme Court in refusing to hear appeals from decisions by three federal circuits (having jurisdiction over 11 states) that struck down bans on same sex marriage. In the meantime, however, such conservatives have generally paid too little heed to the fact that traditional marriage has indeed been undermined, but by factors having nothing at all to do with same sex marriage.  Read More »Blog No. 47. Single Parents, Parenting and Poverty.

Blog 45. Ferguson: The Tip of the Iceberg?

For several weeks of August, the shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri received massive coverage from the media, nationally and internationally. Although the actions of Brown and Wilson took only a few moments, they exposed long-standing racial tensions that are found not only in Ferguson but in cities around the country. For the moment, relative calm has returned to Ferguson and the city has moved out of the media spotlight. While both of those conditions may change, this may be a time to take stock of what we know and don’t know and to consider the implications of Ferguson for other cities.Read More »Blog 45. Ferguson: The Tip of the Iceberg?

Blog No. 30. A Good Day at the White House: “My Brother’s Keeper” and Food Labeling.

The Obama Administration has not had many good days in quite a while, and with the arrival of the crisis in Ukraine, it may not have many for some time. Yet last Thursday, February 27, just before Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea, it was a day at the White House that deserves to be remembered with favorable nods to both the President and First Lady.

For his part, President Obama spoke eloquently of the circumstances of black and Hispanic young men and announced a new initiative, “My Brother’s Keeper,” to address those circumstances. Later that day, Michelle Obama appeared with the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to announce proposed new rules for food labeling, a project that she had been working on for several years. Each announcement, we believe, was one that Republicans can applaud (or at least quietly approve).Read More »Blog No. 30. A Good Day at the White House: “My Brother’s Keeper” and Food Labeling.

Minimum Wage Laws – Moral Imperative or Political Gambit?

The following guest blog is by John Swindell, retired Vice President and Managing Director of RR Donnelley Financial.

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Our current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour went into effect in July, 2009, and is not indexed to any measure of inflation.  President Obama and fellow Democrats are now proposing to increase the federal minimum wage to approximately $10 per hour in a couple of stages.  Early battle lines are being drawn along traditional ideology, with Democrats supporting the raise by citing the moral imperative to fight poverty and reduce income inequality and Republicans opposing the raise by repeating the long-held belief that the laws of economics negate the impact of minimum wage increases, repeating the old adage that you get less of what costs more – higher wages equals reduced employment.  Democrats counter that a plethora of studies have shown no ‘employment effect’ of increasing minimum wage.  A recent Glenn Hubbard Op Ed in The Washington Post disagrees, citing a book by David Neumark and William Wascher:  “a higher wage almost surely reduces employment.”  A recent editorial in Investor’s Business Daily argues that the studies frequently cited by minimum wage supporters did not include wage increases of the magnitude now being contemplated and, further, that the periods studied were relatively short and failed to account for longer-term impacts.Swindell Blog Minimum Wage

Read More »Minimum Wage Laws – Moral Imperative or Political Gambit?

Blog No. 26. Poverty and Marriage.

SPECIAL-marriage-and-child-poverty-WEB-GFX-2The Fiftieth Anniversary of Lyndon Johnson’s declaration of a War on Poverty spurred considerable discussion of whether that war was a success or failure. In the view of RINOcracy.com, William Galston, writing in the Wall Street Journal had it about right:

Every serious analysis concludes that poverty in the U.S. would be far worse without the programs launched during the Great Society. So conservatives should stop repeating Ronald Reagan’s canard that we fought a war on poverty and poverty won. It is more accurate to say that we fought poverty to a draw in circumstances that became increasingly unfavorable for lower-wage workers and their families.Read More »Blog No. 26. Poverty and Marriage.