The list of examples is exceedingly long, but for every [tag]Bush[/tag] commitment to a reasonably progressive goal, there’s overwhelming evidence that the [tag]president[/tag]’s rhetoric is hollow and meaningless. Kevin Drum had a terrific post about this last month, highlighting the president’s alleged concerns about a series of issues (counterproliferation, deficits, democracy promotion) that completely contradict the administration’s actions. As Kevin concluded, “It’s this simple: these guys say a lot of stuff they don’t believe. Their [tag]words[/tag] are largely meaningless.”
Let’s be sure to add [tag]poverty[/tag] to the list.
Poverty forced its way to the top of President Bush’s agenda in the confusing days after Hurricane [tag]Katrina[/tag] battered the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans. Confronted with one of the most pressing political crises of his presidency, Bush, who in the past had faced withering criticism for speaking little about the [tag]poor[/tag], said the nation has a solemn duty to help them.
“All of us saw on television, there’s . . . some deep, persistent poverty in this region,” he said in a prime-time speech from New Orleans’s Jackson Square, 17 days after the Aug. 29 hurricane. “That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with [tag]bold[/tag] [tag]action[/tag].”
Of course, that was nearly a year ago. “Bold action” turned into “timid indifference.” The president not only didn’t follow through on his rhetorical commitments; he doesn’t even offer any more [tag]rhetoric[/tag]. As the WaPo noted, Bush doesn’t even mention poverty anymore. There’s been plenty of talk about tax cuts for people who don’t need them, but discussions of poverty were used just long enough to stop the political bleeding after he and his administration dramatically bungled the Katrina [tag]crisis[/tag].
But the problem here is not just presidential apathy; it’s a set of policies that make the problem worse.
[Bush’s] Office of Management and Budget has sketched scenarios that envision deep funding cuts in an array of programs that aid the poor, including housing assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, community development grants and energy assistance. Budget officials minimize the significance of those projections, saying that they are rarely enacted and that expenditures for many poverty programs have increased sharply since Bush took office. […]
Bush took a more aggressive stance in the days after Katrina. He laid out an ambitious plan to fight poverty with tax breaks to encourage small- and minority-business development; grants to help storm victims with job training, transportation, child care and other needs; and an urban homesteading program that would turn over unused federal property to poor storm victims who could then build houses on it. But most of his proposals went nowhere.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) told the Post, “I’ll never forget the night the president gave that speech from Jackson Square. He talked about stamping out poverty. He talked about things that showed the compassionate side of his compassionate conservative stance.”
Yeah, Bush talks about a lot of things. In the meantime, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen each year Bush has been president — and now 12.7% of the nation’s population lives in poverty.