 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
CURRENT
ISSUE: January 22, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 2Oakland,
CA
New campaign aims to cut poverty in half
 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- “Poverty remains our nation’s
most serious political blind spot and one of our nation’s most profound
moral failings,” says a new policy paper of Catholic Charities USA,
“Poverty in America: A Threat to the Common Good.”
The policy paper, published in the form of a 28-page booklet released
Jan. 10 at a briefing on Capitol Hill, sets the framework for Catholic
Charities’ new Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America.
The goal of the campaign is to cut poverty in half by 2020. That would
mean that the 37 million Americans now living below the poverty line,
who form 12.6 percent of the country’s population, would have to
drop to about 6 percent within 13 years.
“Poverty in this nation is an ongoing disaster that threatens the
health and well-being of our country, which our children will inherit,”
the paper says.
It says the spread of poverty in America “has been largely ignored”
in recent years by politicians and the media, while the federal government
“has substantially reduced the resources” devoted to assisting
the poor.
“There has been a conscious and deliberate retreat from our nation’s
commitment to economic justice for those who are poor,” it says.
The paper pledges Catholic Charities USA and its members -- more than
1,700 local agencies and institutions nationwide -- “to attack the
structural roots of poverty by advocating in Washington, D.C., and state
capitals for policy changes.”
It pledges a campaign to speak out in the public square and raise public
understanding of poverty and its causes.
It says Catholic Charities agencies will continue to serve individuals
and families who are poor, uphold their dignity and work to enable them
“to actively participate in and share in the responsibility for
addressing the issues that brought them to our doors.”
At the same time, it says: “Faith-based groups and the nonprofit
sector do not have the resources to replace those functions which are
the legitimate responsibility of government and the private sector. Catholic
Charities USA will not accept the proposition that agencies such as ours
should substitute for some of the basic functions of government.”
It says Catholic agencies will work in partnership with other social service
agencies, the private sector, the nonprofit sector and government on programs
to decrease poverty.
The paper bluntly confronts the question of the revenue needed to fund
such programs. “The taxes on America’s wealthiest families
and on businesses have been reduced dramatically in the last 25 years.
... It is upper-income families who have prospered most during the last
25 years. ... Therefore it is only fair and just to ask these same families
to bear a greater share of the responsibility for the costs of fighting
poverty,” it says.
It points out that in 1998 the top 20 percent of the population held 83
percent of the total net wealth of the country and the remaining 80 percent
held only 17 percent of the wealth -- and “the gap is growing at
rates that historically are almost unprecedented.”
“Our nation has not seen such extreme inequality since the 1920s,”
it says.
The paper devotes five pages to specific policy proposals, which it summarizes
in terms of two basic areas:
• “Creating more livable-wage jobs and raising the wages of
existing low-paid jobs.”
• “Investing more of our common wealth in social welfare policies
for low-income people.”
The paper notes that unemployment and old age are not the main causes
of poverty in the United States: Nearly two-thirds of all families living
below the poverty line have one or more workers.
It calls for raising the minimum wage from the $5.15 level established
in 1997. The day the policy paper was released the House of Representatives
voted to raise the minimum wage incrementally, to $7.25 in 2009.
A summary of the social policies it calls for says the government should:
• Strengthen and protect the nation’s nutrition safety net.
• Improve the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, known
as TANF, to benefit more families.
• Ensure universal health insurance coverage.
• Support policies that strengthen families.
• Create more affordable housing.
• Improve the Earned Income Tax Credit so it is more inclusive.
• Improve access to education and training.
• Address the growing wealth disparity.
The policy paper and other resource materials are all available on the
Internet at www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.
