Like the Iraqi quagmire, this too was predicted. Cuts to welfare and Medicaid have been followed by a sharp increase in the deaths of infants in the poorest region of the U.S. - the South.
The U.S. has possibly the stingest welfare policy in the Western World, and it shows. There are third world countries that do a better job of supporting children and their families than the U.S. Because the U.S. is too stingy to assist poor women and their families, infants die. But we have more money for wars!
I think pResident Bush calls this a "pro life culture."
Back in 1996, when Bill Clinton sold his soul to conservatives, he called it welfare reform. FDR rolled over in his grave as a Democratic president yanked the entitlement to a safety net out from under poor children and their families. There is no reason to believe that a President Hillary Clinton would be any saner.
New York Times:
HOLLANDALE, Miss. — For decades, Mississippi and neighboring states with large black populations and expanses of enduring poverty made steady progress in reducing infant death. But, in what health experts call an ominous portent, progress has stalled and in recent years the death rate has risen in Mississippi and several other states. . .
The setbacks have raised questions about the impact of cuts in welfare and Medicaid and of poor access to doctors . . .
To the shock of Mississippi officials, who in 2004 had seen the infant mortality rate — defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live births — fall to 9.7, the rate jumped sharply in 2005, to 11.4. The national average in 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9. Smaller rises also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw rises in 2004 and have not yet reported on 2005. . .
Oleta Fitzgerald, southern regional director for the Children’s Defense Fund, said: “When you see drops in the welfare rolls, when you see drops in Medicaid and children’s insurance, you see a recipe for disaster. Somebody’s not eating, somebody’s not going to the doctor and unborn children suffer.”
"Welfare's like a traffic accident. It can happen to anybody, but especially it happens to women. And that is why welfare is a women's issue." -- Johnnie Tillmon, Welfare Activist -- via Super Babymama
Infant Mortality Welfare Reform Politics News Medicaid Cuts Bill Clinton Hillary Mississippi Tennessee The South Poverty
