Guess who doesn't care that its election day?

The Supreme Court.

I might be making too much of this, but they always seem to argue cases on election day. I take it as a sign that they present themselves as immune to politics. The cases they are hearing touch on issue we will raise in the sections on economic and social welfare policymaking (specifically the Fair Housing Act) - as well as items we covered in civil rights and the equal protection clause.

From ScotusBlog:

- Bank of America Corp. v. City of Miami
- Wells Fargo & Co. v. City of Miami

And a description of the case, also from ScotusBlog:

This one from the Washington Post might be more accessible.

- To recoup losses from the housing collapse, Miami pursues a novel suit.

The housing collapse of 2008 nearly broke the city of Miami. Now, its leaders have embarked on a novel and aggressive legal strategy to recoup losses from the big banks they say created the crisis with discriminatory and predatory lending practices.

It is a high-stakes effort that is being encouraged by many cities, and the banks Tuesday will ask the Supreme Court to stop it before it takes root.

Miami sued Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup under the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which bars discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing. The law states its purpose as providing for fair housing “throughout the United States.”

The city says that it can prove the lending institutions discriminated against Hispanic and African American residents by directing them into high-interest, risky loans. The resulting defaults destabilized Miami’s poorest neighborhoods, and the resulting loss of tax revenue sent the city to the brink of bankruptcy, they say.

In Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, another vacant property is torn down. (Angel Valentin/For The Washington Post)

“It took us three years to really start recovering,” said Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez. “We decided unanimously as a commission that we wanted to hold the banks responsible for their lending practices, which we learned were discriminatory in nature.”

Banks have been sued by individuals and taken to task by the federal government for lending practices, but these new cases are the first in which cities are the plaintiffs and are demanding that banks be held accountable for harming their communities.
The banks counter that there is a reason such Fair Housing Act suits are novel: Congress never intended for the law to be used for such purposes.

“Municipal suits like this one were unheard of until recently, when enterprising contingency-fee counsel began pushing them,” Bank of America told the court in its brief.
The banks warn of a “trickle-down” approach that would let anyone affected by a neighborhood in decline — from the next-door neighbor to the corner dry cleaner — to sue under the act.

From the Dallas Morning News: To Fix CPS, Texas must be willing to pay workers more like it never has before.

Another potential agenda item for the 85th session.

- Click here for the article.

Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily, and their Republican colleagues cautiously, to evidence of another breakdown in Texas Child Protective Services investigations — this time in Harris County.

“This is infuriating,” said Rep. Armando Walle, a Houston Democrat who has filed a flurry of bills over the past five years to try to force the agency to ask for what it needs — higher pay, more bodies — to lower workers’ staggering caseloads. “I’m just angry at this whole situation.”

Through early September, half of children referred to Harris County’s CPS investigators weren’t being seen on time, The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday, after analyzing an agency database that tracks initial visits with children mentioned in over 7,300 child abuse cases in the Houston area. In 1 of every 5 open cases there, children weren’t being seen at all.

. . . Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Joe Straus, all Republicans, reacted to the findings — and accounts of CPS failings last week by The News and other media outlets — by sending agency overseer Henry “Hank” Whitman a letter.

In it, the leaders said not getting out and making timely checks on potentially abused children is “completely unacceptable.” They ordered the protective services department, CPS’ parent, to quickly develop an “innovative plan” to hire and train more child-abuse investigators to address the extreme backlogs. However, with 23 percent annual turnover among all caseworkers — and one-third of all investigators quitting each year — many existing slots are unfilled.

While the state GOP leaders acknowledged “associated financial costs,” they directed Whitman to essentially bolster existing efforts. They were mute about the factor that advocates stress most in improving worker performance and retention: higher wages for caseworkers and child abuse investigators.

From the Washington Monthly: Which Federal Programs Best Reduce Poverty? As many as 1 in 5 Americans would be in poverty without Social Security and tax credits for the working poor.

A few rants went off on welfare programs. I stumbled on the following article that attempts to measure their effectiveness.

They focus on an alternative measure of poverty, and what it would be if one of nine different federal poverty programs did not exist. The one that is generally called "welfare" is FANF - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

- Click here for it.

From the Pew Research Center: 5 facts about Social Security

We will be looking at social welfare policy soon enough - this is a key partof it.

- Click here for the post.

Here are the 5 facts:

1- Social Security touches more people than just about any other federal program.
2 - Social Security is, and always has been, an inter-generational transfer of wealth
3 - Right now, Social Security has plenty of assets.
4 - But since 2010, Social Security’s cash expenses have exceeded its cash receipts.
5 - Social Security’s combined reserves likely will be fully depleted by 2034

For more:

- CBO: Social Security.
- CBO: The Long-Term Outlook for Social Security.

From PolicyMic: In 33 U.S. Cities, It’s Illegal to Do the One Thing That Helps the Homeless Most

For 2306's look at the role local government - as well as 2305's look at federalism - some analysis of the consequences of local policies related to homelessness.

- Click here for the article.

This is also an example of both agenda setting and interest groups - since it is based on a report by an advocacy group which is attempting to highlight the problems caused by cities banning food-sharing by private organizations for the homeless.

The report argues that such laws - as well as others - "criminalize" homelessness.

That said, this also illustrates the concept of an unintended consequence, as well as criminal justice policy. An increasing number of people are concerned about the tendency of government to deal with social problems by criminalizing them, making them a felony.

Are there more effective - and cheaper ways to deal; with these problems?

Here's a bit from the story:  

The news: In case the United States' problem with homelessness wasn't bad enough, a forthcoming National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) report says that 33 U.S. cities now ban or are considering banning the practice of sharing food with homeless people. Four municipalities (Raleigh, N.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Daytona Beach, Fla.) have recently gone as far as to fine, remove or threaten to throw in jail private groups that work to serve food to the needy instead of letting government-run services do the job.

Why it's happening: The bans are officially instituted to prevent government-run anti-homelessness programs from being diluted. But in practice, many of the same places that are banning food-sharing are the same ones that have criminalized homelessness with harsh and punitive measures. Essentially, they're designed to make being homeless within city limits so unpleasant that the downtrodden have no choice but to leave. Tampa, for example,criminalizes sleeping or storing property in public. Columbia, South Carolina, passed a measure that essentially would have empowered police to ship all homeless people out of town. Detroit PD officers have been accused of illegally taking the homeless and driving them out of the city.

Houston's mayor is featured:

Some city officials, like Houston's Mayor Annise Parker, claim that "making it easier for someone to stay on the streets is not humane" and say that uncoordinated charity efforts "keep them on the street longer, which is what happens when you feed them."

From Wonkblog: Why are 47 million Americans on food stamps? It’s the recession — mostly.

Charts and graphs are offered to provide background for the current debate over the program - the one House Republicans voted to cut substantively last week.

Aside from graphs - the story answers basic questions reagrding the current state of both the program and the nature of hunger in America.

Here's a look at the recent growth in the program:

The Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013

One of this week's major political stories was the narrow passage in the House of a farm bill which retained farm subsidies, but cut funding for food stamps. The Senate will not pass a similar bill, nor will the president sign it, so it won't go anywhere. But it has led to a broad range of commentary you - 2305 students anyway - might find applicable to the class.

- House Committee on Agriculture, Farm Bill.
- CBO cost estimate of HR 2624.
- The vote on the bill.
- From Thomas: Bill summary and status.

Here's a sampling of stories about the bill, more to come:

- Background from the NYT:

By splitting farm policy from food stamps, the House effectively ended the decades-old political marriage between urban interests concerned about nutrition and rural areas who depend on farm subsidies.

- And from the Wall Street Journal:

The assertive rank-and-file Republicans in the House, though, sank a bipartisan farm bill by amending it to cut $20 billion from food stamps over 10 years. This week, House leaders stripped food stamps from the bill altogether, stunning the farm lobby. With a lot of arm twisting and derisive commentary from Democrats, leaders squeezed a bill through the House 216-208 (with six Republicans and five Democrats not voting.) All the Democratic votes were no.

No one’s quite sure what happens next. House Ag Chairman Frank Lucas (R., Okla.) promised a separate food stamp bill as soon as he can achieve consensus. Mr. Lucas and House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), who wants to enact a farm bill, probably will try to get some food stamp bill through the House so they can get to a Senate-House conference and return with a compromise that will draw enough Democratic votes to offset Republican rank-and-file opposition.

But the House vote underscored a fundamental political reality in the House: A substantial bloc of Republicans, many of them relative newcomers, are determined to force confrontations as they press for sweeping changes to the food stamp program and other federal benefit programs long cherished by Democrats as opposed to pressing hard and then settling for compromises that pull policy slightly to the right. (One aside: As both conservative and liberal think tanks observed this week, details of the farm bill suggest that House Republican vows to cut government spending exempt farm subsidies.)

- The Cato Institute is critical of the bill:

But in passing the farm bill, Republicans demonstrated that they are just fine with bloated welfare programs as long as those welfare payments go to well-healed special interests.

In 2011, the last year for which full data is available, the average farm household had an income of $87,289, 25 percent higher than the average for all U.S. households. And about a third of the farm subsidies go to the largest four percent of farm operators. If you want to see real “welfare queens,” look no further than Pilgrim’s Pride, Tyler Farms, and Riceland Foods.

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: How Effective Is the Safety Net?

Something to file away for a future discussion of the social welfare policy.

The author argues that without the "safety net" - items such as " SNAP (food stamps), refundable tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit, or rental subsidies" - the poverty rates would be twice as high as it is now.

The safety new has its critics. More on that soon enough.

- Wikipedia: Social Safety Net.
- Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It.
- Restoring a True Safety Net.

Texas #4 in unwanted teen pregnancies

A San Antonio Express News writer does not seem confident that the legislature will take the steps necessary to address the issue despite the fact that unwanted pregancies cost the state a good chunk of change:

. . . A lot of states do better — on fewer unintended births to all women of child-rearing age generally, on teen births specifically and, not without coincidence, on access to family planning services and to contraceptives.

There are things Texas could be doing to drop it from its fourth place ranking in teen pregnancy, says Susan Tortolero, director of the Texas Prevention Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

Even to the extent that Texas' rates have been going down, it's still well above the national average for teen births per thousand.

“We need more coverage, more education and more access for teens,” Tortolero said.

But Texas' trajectory here has not been encouraging.

“Unfortunately, Texas has turned in the wrong direction with regard to preventive healthcare and preventing unplanned pregnancy,” said Janet Realini, president of Healthy Futures of Texas, working to reverse these trends. “The women's health care safety net is in tatters.”

Texas cut its family planning funding by two thirds.

Women's health services in general have taken a hit in recent year. Few expect this trend to change.

For a look at how Texas compares to other states in a variety of categories, click here - though this link is a bit dated. Texas tends to be more business friendly than social welfare friendly.

4 - Summer 2 GOVT 2302 Written Assignment #4

A couple week's back I asked you to consider Chief Justice John Roberts recent ruling on the Affordable Care Act and what his motivation may have been for deciding as he did.

This week - since you will be looking at social welfare policy among other things - I want to return to that decision, or at least its consequences. One of the decisions made by the court was that state could not be punished for not expanding Medicaid. States like Texas - which tend to provide few services to the poor - have no interest in expanding Medicaid and may even seek to restrict it.

I want you to look at the conflict between the national government and the Texas government regarding this social welfare issue - what level of health care ought to be provided to the poor - and detail it as best you can. What does this tell us about the current state of affairs between the national and state governments regarding social welfare policy?

Absolute poverty in the US is getting worse.

Something to tack onto 2302s look at social welfare policy. Via Andrew Sullivan.

- The Recession and Extreme Poverty.
- Poor and Getting Poorer.

Recessions, in fact, appear to affect disproportionately the extreme poor, rather than those closer to the federal poverty threshold or the "near poor," those whose income is less than twice the federal poverty threshold.

Consider this: in 2010, 6.7 percent of Americans were among the extreme poor, as compared to 5.2 percent in 2007 and 4.5 percent in 2000. That's a 50 percent increase in the fraction of extremely poor individuals -- the greatest increase, by far, of any income group relative to the poverty threshold.
The comments are worth perusing.

Why Good People Can't Find Jobs

More from the Fiscal Times: A conversation with an author that claims that the hiring practices of companies make it difficult for skilled job applicants to connect with the right job.

Files this under: What factors cause - or sustain - unemployment.

From the Fiscal Times: The Poor: Not As Bad Off As They Once Were?

This story illustrates a point made in our lectures on social welfare policy. Poverty in the US is more relative than absolute. If one measures it in terms of access to consumer products - that get cheaper all the time - there's little poverty in the US, but the story is different when inequality is taken into consideration. But there's no clear cut, non controversial way to measure inequallity.

As with many other phenomena, data can be found to support various positions.

Texas on the Brink

A liberal leaning caucus in the Texas House (not much to pick from there) has released a report - Texas on the Brink - detailing Texas' rankings on several social factors. The findings are neither positive, nor surprising. Among our rankings:

- Percent of Population Uninsured - 1st
- Percent of Uninsured Children - 1st
- Tax Revenue Raised per Capita - 46th- Percent of Population 25 and Older with a High School Diploma - 50th
- Amount of Recognized Cancer-­‐Causing Carcinogens Released into Air - 1st

There's much more, and the report is especially useful for digging up sources for this data. The Legislative Study Group is composed primarily - if not wholly - of Democrats, so its iffy if they will be able to find support to address these problems in the current political and budgetary environment.

Jobs Wont be Coming Back Any Time Soon

Here's cheery news for college students. Given the vast number of jobs lost in the last 3 years, and the relatively slow rate of jobs created in the 1990s and 2000s, we may not be able to expect a full recovery from the recession for a decade or more.

Not to worry. A "new global elite" is doing just fine.

Update: 1/11/11

Those jobs may never come back.

From Foreign Policy:

As time passes, it is harder to avoid the notion that a lot of those old jobs simply weren't adding much to the economy. Except for the height of the housing boom -- October 2007 through June 2008 -- real GDP is now higher than it has been in the entirety of U.S. history. The fact that the United States has pre-crisis levels of output with fewer workers raises doubts as to whether those additional workers were producing very much in the first place. If a business owner fires 10 people and a year later output is almost back to normal, it's pretty hard to make the argument that they were doing much in the first place.

The story runs as follows. Before the financial crash, there were lots of not-so-useful workers holding not-so-useful jobs. Employers didn't so much bother to figure out who they were. Demand was high and revenue was booming, so rooting out the less productive workers would have involved a lot of time and trouble -- plus it would have involved some morale costs with the more productive workers, who don't like being measured and spied on. So firms simply let the problem lie.

Then came the 2008 recession, and it was no longer possible to keep so many people on payroll. A lot of businesses were then forced to face the music: Bosses had to make tough calls about who could be let go and who was worth saving. (Note that unemployment is low for workers with a college degree, only 5 percent compared with 16 percent for less educated workers with no high school degree. This is consistent with the reality that less-productive individuals, who tend to have less education, have been laid off.)

In essence, we have seen the rise of a large class of "zero marginal product workers," to coin a term.

Will Texas Opt Out of Medicaid

From the NYT:

A week after newly emboldened Republicans in the Texas Legislature floated a radical cost-saving proposal — opting out of the federal Medicaid program — health care experts, economists and think tanks are trying to determine just how serious they are, and if it would even be possible.
Update: More detail from the Texas Tribune. Republicans are arguing that cutting Medicaid is saves the state money, but others argue that it doesn't since the feds pick up most of the tab for Medicaid and if the policy is limited costs may be sent down to counties where property taxes and insurance premiums will pick up the tab.

Touching the Third Rail

Should the retirement age be pushed back? Here's some discussion on the topic. Doing so would instantly make Social Security solvent for generations, but proposing doing so might be political suicide.

Texas Doctors are Dropping out of Medicare

At an alarming rate says the Chron. This is an unintended consequence of a 1997 effort to reduce spending on medial care.

A related story:
- Medicare Pay Cuts Averted, Cobra Extended — Why All the Sad Faces ...

Consequences of the Debt Crisis

A few points of view on what the debt crisis means for the services provided for the elderly.

The Limits of Policy

A worthwhile read from David Brooks. Public policy can make things worse, but seldom makes things better for people. Not a positive message.