Grading the Administration 26

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: A-

Sometimes a great many small things get the job done. This week there was not one huge undertaking, but many small items that got the Administration into the A territory. So, for the week of July 20 to July 26, I have to give the administration an A- for the following reasons:

1. As we have seen the administration is making a full court press on changing the health care system. These included a trip to Shaker Hts to conduct a town hall. A speech by Peter Orszag on financing health care reform helped, and President Obama used the weekly address again to talk about health care reform and insurance companies.
2. There was the release of a school funding challenge called "Race for the Top," which seems to be a competition among the nation's schools for federal dollars. It may turn out to be a policy in which the rich get richer, but any change in direction is worth the risk after the 30 year decline in the state of education in America.
   
3. One help for privacy is that it was announced no federal website is allowed to put a "cookie" on a user's computer when visiting any executive branch website.
   
4. There were more "Recovery in Action" stories on the White House website including a story about a new workforce development program in Pennsylvania.
   
5. Vice President Biden wrote an opinion piece in the Sunday New York Times about the progress made in the rebuilding the economy. I suspect that this is to stem the slow decline in popularity for the Obama administration, but I think that it helps.
6. The HUD budget passed the House with much of what the administration wanted including increases in HOPE VI, CDBG, HOME, homeless assistance, and public houisng funding. All these will be helpful to shore up budgets that were slashed over the last few years.
   
7. The reform of Section 8 passed the House committee with the addition of 150,000 new vouchers. The only Democrat voting in the committee against this proposal was Rep. Driehaus from southern Ohio.
   
8. HUD announced $100 million for Native American housing.
9. HUD also announced a plan to supplement the Low Income Housing Tax program because there are so few taxes to credit businesses. The problem is that with the financial difficulties of major corporations, they are not paying taxes like they had in the past. Therefore they do not really need a tax credit, and so those credits were going unsold in many states. The federal government has stepped in to try to stabilize this program.
   
10. The Administration announced that they continue to support the National Housing Trust and want to see funding added to the Trust Fund this year.
    
11. A bill was introduced this week (HR 1675) to begin to build new housing for the disabled again.
    
12. A group of activists have begun talking to HUD about the timely release of REAC scores. These are the grades for the subsidized housing in the United States. HUD sends contractors out to review every single publicly subsidized housing in the United States, and we have tried to get these scores released on a regular basis. At this time, Congressman Kucinich's office has to request the scores every month in a Freedom of Information request. We pay for the scores and we pay for the housing; why can't we have the scores automatically posted?
    
13. The Administration is talking about fair housing. This forgotten issue is intended to push the goal of integrating neighborhoods and protecting the rights of the disabled, minority populations, and gays and lesbians from discrimination in housing. This law was dusted off from years of inactivity, and a $26 million dollar grant was announced by HUD. Also, the Department announced that they would begin discussions on how fair housing laws could be strengthened so that local jurisdictions would work to prevent discrimination instead of waiting for complaints to come in to address the problem.
14. The Department of Health and Human Services is not concentrating all their time on health care reform. They did some upgrade on their website to include information on the flu pandemic, and the community health initiatives.
    

All of these items together move the administration to the A territory. They have not seen an A for two months. Overall, a good week.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry

Grading the Administration 24 and 25

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: B

For the week of July 6 to July 12, the administration spent a great deal of time on health care reform which gives them an automatic D as their lowest possible grade. For the first week in July right after the holiday the administration accomplished a great deal. There are a few things that they get points off for this week including the release of the flawed report assessing the number of homeless people. We complain about this every year, but that was a previous administration which never really paid attention to domestic issues. The HUD report is based on flawed data with so many caveats that it is basically useless. There was a great deal of discussion about the flu pandemic, but nothing about how low income or poor people would deal with an epidemic.

The good things that happened this week include:

1. The President gave a jobs speech in his weekly radio address. This is the key to our future, and the administration needs to spend more time on creating jobs.
   
2. The Administration released another "recovery in action" blog entry highlighting how the stimulus dollars are being used. Most were transportation or transit programs, but it is good to see these stories laid out.
   
3. The Vice President's wife who works as a professor at a Community College, championed higher education and pushed for an expansion of funding for community colleges. She introduced a goal that the United States would have the largest per capita population by 2020 in the world. Right now the U.S. is tenth or eleventh in the industrial world in percentage of citizens obtaining a higher education degree.
   
4. Hospitals agreed to give up $155 billion to make the health reform system work.
   
5. HUD made available an additional 2,500 family unification housing vouchers for the United States. Yes, this is a drop in the bucket but they get some credit.
   
6. The administration has worked to develop a Declassification Center in order to attempt to set a standard for releasing public documents. Again, transparency from government always gets additional points.
   
7. Along with the hospital initiative, there was a roundtable by VP Joe Biden and HHS Kathleen Sibelius on the problems with the current health insurance system and the impact on small businesses.
8. HHS released a small grant request for $40 million to help local communities expand child healthcare programs.
9. The preservation relief act (HR 2887) was introduced. This bill would use tax credits to try to expand affordable housing options in the United States.
   
10. Finally, there was an attempt to reduce the number of new housing vouchers in a bill to reform. The bill would have effectively gutted the effort to expand affordable housing, but lost on a mostly party line vote.
    

Overall a B for this week.

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: C

Such a good week last week, but the week of July 13 to July 19 there was a lot of talk, but very little action. There was more on health care so they get up to a D, but not a lot of other items tackled this week. Cabinet Secretary Gary Locke volunteered in a homeless shelter in Arizona. The President focused his weekly radio address on health care urging law makers not to wait anymore. Biden and Sibelius were also out stumping for health care reform on the Sunday talk shows and a forum on reform for senior citizens. There was a new Surgeon General introduced this week who was an inspiration to all women. Alabama's Regina Benjamin has run a rural health clinic for years, and had to rebuild the facility three times due to natural disasters and fire.

The President talked to the kickoff of the 100th anniversary of the NAACP and hit all the right notes. He talked about housing issues, and that there are too many people incarcerated in the U.S. Obama was clear that discrimination had not ended and included discrimination of all minorities including gays and lesbians. The President also went to the hardest hit state in the union, Michigan to talk about the push for more community college funding. He was bold in saying that some of the manufacturing jobs will not be coming back, and urged the citizens of Michigan to look elsewhere. Economic recovery advisory, Lawrence Summer delivered an important speech about the state of the U.S. economy. He said that the worst is behind us and we are on a good path toward recovery. I am not sure if I believe this, but if the administration keeps saying this it may boost confidence.

There were additional maps added to recovery.gov site to make it easier to navigate. From the map it looks like only two companies have benefited from the stimulus dollars in Northeast Ohio. Finally, a new direction was announced in the administration's urban agenda. The domestic policy group met to discuss the urban agenda, and announced that various cabinet secretaries would tour the country looking for innovation and any where that government is slowing innovation. They will start in Philadelphia, Denver and Kansas City. Overall a C for the week.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 23

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: C

It was a holiday week from June 29 to July 5, 2009 plus there were two foreign trips. One by Vice President Biden to Iraq and the President traveled to Russia at the end of the week so attention was focused on international affairs. There were a few things that happened that could have a positive impact on homelessness and poverty. They include:

1. Again there was more talk about health care reform including a town hall on July 1, 2009. This, as always, gets the grade up to a D as a starting point.
   
2. It was announced that the Department of Education is working to simplify the Financial Aid Application for college--a good step to help more people afford higher education.
3. There was a "Making Home Affordable" tour including a HUD announcement to make the eligibility broader so that more people can take advantage of the program. More borrowers should be able to join the program in order to avoid foreclosure.
   
4. This does not have much to do with poverty, but it is helpful. They posted the salaries of everyone working in the White House on the site. So, by the way, Valerie Jarrett and Rahm Emanuel both Special Assistants to the President make $172,200 while those poor souls who have to read the mail as correspondence assistants make only $36,000. I like having this information easily available.
   
5. They also posted more stories about how the stimulus dollars are working including a story about Youthbuild in Louisville Kentucky.
   
6. There was more discussion in the weekly address about continuing the effort to reform education.
   
7. Finally, HUD announced the tax credits awarded to 26 states to address affordable housing needs in the local community. Ohio taxes advantage of the tax credit program, and Cuyahoga County gets a piece of the $1 billion released during the week.

So, for these reasons the administration gets a C for the week during these dog days of summer.
Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 22

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: B

It is almost time for the Independence Day vacations, and so there was a big push on to get things done. A great deal happened between June 15 and June 21 in the struggle to reduce poverty. Here is a short run down of the items that result in a B on the academic scale:

1. There was more information released about the health care reform efforts. Every week that they push for universal health care guarantees at least a D for the week.
2. The Administration talked about HIV testing, which has not been uttered by a President for 9 years.
   
3. HUD is proposing additional vouchers for those with a disability.
   
4. One negative was the crumbling of the nation's infrastructure with the crash of Metro trains in DC. This is the a sign of the maintenance that has been delayed in nearly every American city for major transportation, utility, and energy projects.
   
5. There was more volunteering by the Administration including an event in Dallas and New Orleans by the Trade Representative and the HUD Secretary.
6. Michelle Obama and the President did another volunteer activity to call attention to the AmeriCorps programs by putting together backpacks.
   
7. There was the announcement of $80 billion in prescription discounts for seniors by the major pharmaceuticals.
8. There were repeated questions for the administration about health care last week including during the press conference.
   
9. The middle class task force met, which normally results in a decrease in points. This week they get a boost because the task force met in Ohio, and our own Amy Hanauer of Policy Matters Ohio spoke to the group. Maybe the middle class task force is not all that bad.
   
10. There was the ABC television special on Health Care reform in which the administration had to defend their choices and the cost of this massive effort to cover everyone.
    
11. There was another push to make sure that no veteran ever becomes homeless with the announcement of the release of more housing vouchers.
12. HHS released a report on the hidden costs of health care last week.
13. Finally, HR 3068 was introduced to put $1 billion into the National Housing Trust in a bill that is being labeled as relief for main street.
    

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 21

Weekly Grades of the Administration on Poverty: C+

For the week of June 15-21, the administration received a C+. They are still hammering on health care, which they always get additional points for this work. There were a number of other items that the administration undertook this last week:

1. A new office of Consumer Protection was introduced that would help regulate credit, insurance, and lending in the United States.
2. A new fatherhood initiative was introduced by the President.
3. The First Lady kicked off the United We Serve initiative in DC. More volunteers will lead to more people realizing that there is a problem in the country. If people realize there is a problem that is one step closer to finding a solution.
4. More discussions of open government (again there were more hits to transparency last week.)
5. Budget Guru, Peter Orszag discussed the problems with our current health care system.
6. The Prez. went to visit the obstacles to progress in health care reform when he spoke to the American Medical Association in Chicago.
7. The US Interagency Council on Homelessness finally met and they elected the HUD Secretary. Not much happened here, but having all these cabinet secretaries sitting around talking about homelessness is important.
8. Congress hosted a hearing asking HUD to initiate a moratorium on demolition of public housing until a policy can be established.
9. Congress also scheduled a hearing to continue the discussion about the reform of Section 8.
10. Quietly, and without a lot of fanfare there were additional housing vouchers for areas recovering from the hurricanes put into the supplemental defense authorization bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Brian Davis
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 20

Weekly Grades for the Administration on Poverty: C-

Twenty weeks for the administration and the grades are slipping from last week. They keep pressing the health care reform with a town hall forum and the announcement that the administration supports a public alternative to insurance companies. These are both positives. They have issued a report on the savings that could be made with medicare and medicaid. One of the interesting items on the White House Blog is four or five stories from real people throughout the United States who are trying to survive during this economic downturn.

There were a few other anti-poverty measures from last week:

1. There were more actions to make government more transparent. They only get a few points for this, because at the same time they were moving to a more open government, the administration decided to fight an attempt to disclose the White House visitor's logs.
2. They nominated a HUD Secretary for Community Planning and Development.
3. The administration gets points off for releasing those questionable job figures last week. We need a government office that can check statistics released by the government like they have in England.
4. The administration did a conference call about possible savings in the Medicaid and Medicare program, but I could not find the results of this call on the site. I know that there are plenty of arguments from the Office of Management and Budget about the crippling costs of health care for the economy.
   
5. Also, last week there was a cabinet meeting and many poverty related issues were discussed.
   

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Areas Needed to End Poverty

Photo by Cheryl Jones--one of the 2008 graduates of the Photo project in Cleveland.

Outstanding Issues for Administration Ending Poverty in America

The new Administration earned a B- for the first semester efforts to end poverty. This is not bad for a time of two wars, a housing bubble, and a financial collapse, but they could do better. Grades get tougher as we go through the administration, because expectations are raised. Here are the areas that they need to address over the next few months.

1. Katrina Housing: The administration has not ignored the problem, but we have yet to start building housing on a grand scale. We need a massive investment in a large number of affordable housing projects.
2. Jobs are starting to trickle in from the Stimulus, but Ohio, Michigan, and most of the South are still suffering and their needs to be more work on this issue. How about a WPA style jobs program?
3. The summer is a good time to work on an overhaul of the school system in America.
4. College needs to be made more affordable. The student loan program needs overhauled, and the proposed legislation needs passed.
5. The new homeless law needs to be implemented with protections for the privacy of homeless people, and the creation of a simple way to determine whether a person is homeless or not.
6. We need some actions on civil rights issues which keep people poor. There is no progress on hate crimes against homeless people, fair housing violations, or equal rights for women and homosexuals.
7. We still have not seen any progress on the problems facing the rural or urban poor.
8. There was a good start on debt issues with the credit card reform bill, but we still need bank, payday loan, and mortgage lender reform.
9. We need a moritorium on foreclosures as soon as possible, while we figure out what to do.
10. What are we going to do with the millions of housing units sitting empty in our cities?
11. We appreciate the transparency of the White House website, but we need the same from the departments.
12. There are still lower level staff vacancies at many of the Departments that are not filled at this point.
13. The White House site lists strengthening families as a goal. We have not seen much progress on strengthening families especially very low income households losing their housing.
14. There are impressive gains in the services to veterans especially homeless veterans, but there is more that we could do to provide mental health care to all veterans.
15. There is a lot of talk about health care reform, but we are waiting for a bill. Under health care issues that need more attention include the poverty level checks sent to those on disability, and more attention to the AIDS/HIV crisis.
16. We need more attention to Re-Entry issues, and what are we going to do with all the people returning to our city as casualties of the war on drugs.
17. It is time to look again at the entire entitlement system. From cash assistance, social security, child support and unemployment to repair the safety net across the country in a sensible and humane manner.

A tall order, but the current president ran on the platform of Hope and Change.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 19

Weekly Grades for Administration on Poverty: B-

Have you noticed that when the CEO is in Europe or the Middle East, the Executive Branch does not accomplish much domestically? Obama was in Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt this week, and very little happened from the White House to address poverty. Here are a few things from 1800 Pennsylvania Ave. with the lead being the full court press on health care reform. Obama talked about it in the weekly video address. He sent a letter to Sen. Kennedy outlining his plans, and there was the release of information on the cost of not reforming health care to our economy. The administration is serious about reform, but please do not listen to the insurance companies and big pharma. They have lied to us for decades, and their only interest is staying in business. They force us to make health decisions based on costs and not the advice of doctors. They told us that HMOs would control costs for everyone. LIES, LIES, and more LIES. At NEOCH, our health care goes up 8 to 18% per year no matter if the economy is depressed or booming. They just lie to America, and they fear government funded health care more than swine flu in a TB isolation ward. Many fell for their propaganda in the 1990s, but we are a lot smarter about health care at this point.

America bought a car company last week. That has to be worth something toward ending poverty. If we could just buy a health care company and about 100 million apartment units, we would be set. VP Biden held another middle class task force meeting--still waiting for the "How do I get into the Middle Class Task Force" meeting. Points off for every meeting of the middle class task force. The Veterans Administration held a hearing on Capital Hill regarding ending homelessness among veterans. I don't know how I missed it, but the VA recently updated their website with an entire section of resources for homeless veterans. This is a very good upgrade, and it is maintained regularly. Senator Schumer of NY introduced the "Homes for Heroes Act of 2009" last week (S. 1160). The bill would provide $200 million to HUD for supportive housing for very low income veterans. The bill would also provide 20,000 new housing vouchers for homeless veterans. Senator Brown is already a co-sponsor.

There were a number of new initiatives announced to address the housing crisis in the Gulf region. There were additional vouchers, additional funds, and the selling of FEMA trailers to home owners. The problem is that there is just not enough affordable housing in the region. Until we get into the business of building large numbers of affordable housing developments (apartments, scattered site houses, mixed use owner/occupied complexes, and senior housing) there will not be enough space for all the low income people in the region.

I have to mention that Dr. Jill Biden did some volunteering last week to assist the troops. The big four will always get a few extra points if they are out volunteering. There was a great deal of discussion and tangible ideas presented to make government more transparent last week. There was a hearing in Congress to look at the reform of Section 8 housing program. Senators from the Banking committee urged support of the 2010 Federal budget and especially the "robust" appropriations for housing. Ohio's Senator Brown signed onto this letter urging his colleagues to support additional housing funds. Finally, there seems to be a new approach at HUD to enforce fair housing laws. HUD has refused to certify one county in New York's consolidated plan, which is the road map for a community accepting government dollars and planning to reduce housing disparities, discrimination, affordability issues. This is a huge step forward. Check out the National Low Income Housing Coalition's website under Memo to Members for last week for more details.

On Tuesday, we will go over the syllabus for the next semester of issues still lacking in the struggle to end poverty in America.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Semester Grades for the Administration: 1

Obama Administration Earns a B- for First Semester Struggle to Reduce Poverty

The grades are in for the first semester of the Administration, and the executive branch earned a B-. This is not bad for the first 18 weeks of the new administration. They earned only one solid A in the first 18 weeks with the signing of the stimulus bill. They had one A- last week after the homeless/foreclosure/renter bill was signed into law. They did get one F in week 12. If we were grading on a curve in comparison to other administrations in Europe, Asia and South America, I am sure that they would have received a B+ or better.

The country has dealt with an auto industry in free fall, a Supreme Court vacancy, a financial collapse, recession, 30 plus banks that failed, rising unemployment, a housing bubble bursting, foreclosures, the fallout from US torturing detainees, Guantanamo Bay prison, North Korea and Iran, lawsuits filed against the previous administration, a federal budget, and two wars. It is amazing that any attention was paid to poor people, health care, the environment or homelessness. Just compiling the above list it is almost like we can summarize the first semester of the administration as: the good news is that they won the popular vote to take the leadership of the United States, the bad news is that they won the popular vote to take the leadership of the United States.

Unlike a few other administrations, this group will not be taking the summer off. We will have grades at the end of August for the summer semester. Next week, we will again post the list of areas that the administration needs to dedicate some attention with regard to poverty to begin to get their grades up to the A level. There is a long list of problems that they have not even begun to address including rural issues, Katrina, and jobs, jobs, jobs.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 18

Weekly Grades for the Administration on Poverty: C

This was a slow week, because Congress was on vacation for Memorial Day, and the administration focused a great deal of attention on the Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor. A few things did happen that will have some impact on homelessness and poverty, which lead me to give the Government a "C" for this week.

There was a new focus on Open Government by the administration with more work on making the federal bureaucracy more transparent. As always, the more information on the workings of government the better for everyone.

There was $252 million distributed to Indian, Native and Alaskan tribes through HUD for housing and development issues through the stimulus. This is one of the poorest populations in the United States, and they deserve about 10 times that amount.

A bill to reform the Neighborhood Stabilization funding was introduced right before Congress went on vacation. This would allow the federal government to recoup any of the profits realized by the government after disposition of these funds.

One thing that slipped by me two weeks ago with the signing of the renters in foreclosure bill by President Obama was that those rules were effective immediately. So, any renter living in a building in which their landlord goes into foreclosure has some ability to continue with their lease after the sale of the property. This is huge and is right now the law of the land.

There were three hearings scheduled for the this week by the Congress in which the administration staff will have to testify. These include a hearing on the status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Wednesday. There is a hearing on the same day to lay out the plans by the Veterans Administration and other federal offices to assure that there is an end to homelessness among veterans. Finally, on Thursday there is a hearing on the Housing Choice Voucher Program and the reform attempts. Set your TiVo to tape C-Span in the evening over the next few days.

Not much else that had any impact on poverty.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 17

Weekly Grades for the Administration on Poverty: A-

One more week before the first semester grades come out, and the Administration is finishing strong. This was a good week for the struggle to reduce poverty with an A- for the Administration. If they had passed a better homeless bill this last week, they could have received a solid A. There was the proper balance of issues forwarded as well as action with legislation passed and signed into law. Here is a run down of the positives that led to the "A-" for this week:

1. The Housing Bill to prevent foreclosures and increase funding for homelessness was signed into law on Thursday. You can read a complete summary of the bill and the positives and negatives from this new law in our blog entry from yesterday.
2. HR 2346 passed out of the Senate referred to as the Disaster Recovery from the Hurricanes, and will go to conference committee. The Senate version included additional funds for housing vouchers. This is three years overdue, but a good step.
   
3. Sec. of HUD Donovan testified in support of the Section 8 voucher reform bill. This is a good bill that will help to fully fund and make needed changes in the Section 8 affordable housing programs.
   
4. The President issued the standard Memorial Day speech about the sacrifice made by those serving in the military. The one big change was that President Obama urged the rest of the population to volunteer to help out those serving the country. He mentioned taking food to a VA facility or helping homeless veterans. "That can mean sending a letter or a care package to our troops overseas. It can mean volunteering at a clinic where a wounded warrior is being treated or bringing supplies to a homeless veterans center," President Obama said on Saturday. Any call to remind people of the need to volunteer is helpful.
   
5. The President signed a bill "Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act" into law. This will hopefully reduce waste and fraud within the Defense budget, and we hope this will help to move money from guns to butter in the federal budget.
   
6. The Credit Card reform bill was also signed into law this last week. Again, debt is keeping many in our society poor, and while this law will not take effect until 2010, it is still a valuable tool in the struggle to reduce poverty.
   
7. Finally, Data.gov was introduced as a new website that details how tax dollars are being spent. There is not a lot of data on it at this point, but it is a good start that when populated should be helpful.

This is finals week for the administration. We will have one last grade for the semester and then grades will be summarized and a first semester grade will be issued.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration: 17

Weekly Grades for the Obama Administration on Poverty: C-

Grades are slipping this last week. There was a lot of work done over the last week on health care reform. There was a great deal of discussion, but I am not sure on the progress. The health care industry promised to control costs over the next 10 years. This seems bogus to me. They have raised the rates on my employees health care between 8-16% EVERY YEAR over the last 10 years. So, how about a rollback? Not raising rates as much does not seem to be much of a compromise. I actually think that they realize that the jig is almost up, and they are trying to get some sympathy from the public as this debate starts. The health care insurance companies, drug industry, and health care corporations are the main source of the crisis and should not be at the table for this upcoming debate.

Other things that happened last week in the struggle to end poverty include:

1. A town hall forum on the problems of debt and the problems in the credit card industry.
2. A progress report was issued on the Stimulus dollars. This did not get much attention because only 6% of the funds are out the door. But the www.recovery.gov site has a lot of great data. They break up the funds by state or by agency, and everyone has the opportunity to see how their federal dollars are being used. It is actually interesting to see the large amount of funds being spent on bridges and roads compared to housing and health care. I like it, and for the policy wonks out there, it is a virtual schmorgaborg of information.
   
3. $1 Billion was released for housing renovation at Public Housing last week.
   
4. $1.79 Billion was released to help those living with AIDS be able to pay for medicine.

Still nothing on New Orleans, and hurricane season is fast approaching. Still most of the goals under "Poverty" on the White House website have very little details and are not even started. Some of the plans have begun to trickle in over the last few days regarding preventing homelessness in various cities. It will be interesting to see if HUD allows some of these plans to go forward. For example, Las Vegas is going to use its $2 million to remove a tent city from the area. This does not seem to be consistent with the goals of the funds to set up a system to prevent people from entering shelters. There is a long way to go to fill the holes we dug for ourselves over the last 40 years in creating generational poverty. Semester grades come out the second week in June.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 16

Weekly Grades for the Obama Administration on Poverty: B

Another good week for the administration as we head into the last few weeks of the first semester. I am giving a B this week for a bunch of positive steps. This is for the week of May 3 to May 9. I was out for the first few days of the week so I did not get to report. Anyway, here are the items that will help with the struggle to reduce homelessness and poverty in America:

1. There was an announcement about expanding rural health clinics in America.
2. There was a line by line analysis of the proposed budget with the reduction in funding for some programs that were not working.
   
3. The full budget was released with more details about the administration's priorities.
   
4. The full HUD budget was released, and it contained an increase in the voucher program, Public Housing renovations, and an increase in CDBG funds.
   
5. HUD also released $1 billion in stimulus dollars for Public Housing capital improvements.
6. The weekly radio address focused on credit card reform, which would help lower income people stay out of debt.
   
7. Finally, there was a push to keep jobs in the United States by seeking tax changes that would provide an incentive for businesses to keep jobs in the United States.
   

For these reasons, we will give the administration a B for work on reducing poverty in the United States.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 15

Weekly Grades for the Administration on Poverty: B+

I was extremely sick over the last three days, so I did not get to post the weekly grades on Sunday. The first semester grades are coming out at the end of the month, and I did not want to miss a week. There were a few things that happened with regard to the fight against poverty, but they were all minor issues. The big reason for the B+ was the dismissal of Philip Mangano from the InterAgency Council on Homelessness, and the subsequent appointment of an acting director who seems to have a better understanding of homelessness in America. Sometimes, the appointment of one person can make all the difference. The Supreme Court is the most obvious example. Imagine how different the United States would be without Justices Burger, Brennan, and Brandeis. But there are other critical appointments such as Secretaries of State like Jennings-Bryant and Marshall or Adlai Stevenson as Ambassador to the United Nations during the Kennedy Administration. The converse of this is also true in that when the wrong person is in a position of leadership no progress is made (James Watt at Interior, McNamara at Defense, etc.).

For poverty, Phil Mangano was just such an obstacle to any progress in the area of ending homelessness. It is a good day in America that he is leaving and that is why the administration gets a B+ for this week. The new acting director has a great deal of experience with veterans who have stumbled into homelessness. Peter Dougherty, the new acting director, is rumored to have figured out ways around the stiff HUD definition of homelessness when necessary to better serve veterans.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 14

Weekly Grades for the Administration on Poverty: B

I got to see many senior officials of the Administration, who showed up to talk to advocates about housing issues. Sometimes, just showing up is half the battle. The administration announced the signing of the national service bill, which is a huge step to address poverty. There was another health care meeting to allow small businesses to talk about the crippling costs of health insurance. The President has decided to take on the staggering debt with both credit card reform, and a change in student loans for college. These are both huge issues for lower income people. Student loans are such a rip off since the federal government takes all the risk, but a private company makes all the profits. This is a great day for making college more affordable in America. It has to get through the Congress, and over the massive number of lobbyist, but the fact that the Administration is willing to make the fight is a big step.

The Administration also held a gathering of all the major disability organizations in the Country to talk about policy, government accessibility, and other issues facing those with a disability. The real purpose was to listen to these groups and hear their concerns. Overall, a good week for the struggle to end poverty. Also, a good way to go into the 100th day.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration: 13

Weekly Grades for the Obama Administration on Poverty: D

Again, not much to say for unlucky week 13. Obama was out of the country for most of the week, and so it seems as though the government does very little on domestic issues during the President's absence. There was another middle class forum held to talk about making college affordable. There was a new HUD staff person selected who actually knows the words "Fair Housing," which is a good thing. This is HUD Fair Housing month, which was ignored for about a decade. There is a great deal of work going on within the administration on getting the stimulus dollars on the streets. There was more inside baseball talk about government reform to make the executive branch more effective. The President spent tax day with a few "ordinary Americans" discussing tax policy and the federal government. This does not deserve many points, but at least it is an effort. No points for the foreign trips or the release of the tax returns, so this week is a D in the academic scale. Now that Obama has travelled all around the world it is time to focus on domestic policy and poverty. Hey, just expand the ideas on the White House website about poverty with a little more flesh on the proposals, and the administration would get a C. They better hurry--It is almost the end of the first semester.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 12

Weekly Grades of Obama Administration on Poverty: F

I don't have much to say this week, but the administration did very little toward addressing poverty. I looked at all the federal websites that had anything to do with poverty, but could not find anything. There was another health forum this week, but the biggest issue was the increase in the defense budget. The proposal is to increase defense spending by 4% over last year. There is a decrease in spending on weapons and more money on personnel, but this is money that could go for butter. Even if we reduced the defense spending to the level of the Carter or Nixon administration that would be a step in the right direction. During this recession, we need more butter and fewer guns. One weapon's system could solve homelessness in Cleveland. This is the first F for the administration, and I hope that this is not a trend. Semester grades are coming out soon.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Grading the Administration 11

Weekly Grades for the Obama Administration on Poverty: D

This was a rough week to give a score, because nearly all the work of the administration involved international and foreign policy. I had to dig deep to find anything that had to do with poverty coming out of the executive branch this week. I would give an Incomplete for lack of any work done, but the administration is bigger then just the President. So, I looked at what the various departments are doing and found a few things that will help, but it is scarce. This week we have to give the Administration a D for their work on poverty.

The G-20 did approve a large allocation to fight poverty in developing countries. How can we get Detroit and Cleveland to qualify as a developing nation? The department of Health and Human Services is sending out billions to improve Head Start. This is no doubt a program that helps lower income children with proven success. They are also announcing the increase in rural health clinics as part of the stimulus bill. Again, a needed expansion in a country that has developed a formula for converting a person's health to a dollar figure. There will be a series of health care reform forums and the administration is looking for input. Finally, the Department of Education is starting to send some of the capital dollars out to improve schools throughout the United States. That is all that I could find for this last week. Obama was traveling most of the week, and said very little about poverty back home.

Brian

Grading the Administration 10

Weekly Grades for the Obama Administration on the Struggles to Reduce Poverty: C+

The weekly report card for the Obama Administration and their struggle to reduce poverty has them at a C+ for this week. Some of the items that the President worked on this week included one press conference and one town hall forum. Both were heavy on discussions about health care (not including the marijuana question) and education. These are critical issues to tackle in order to reduce poverty. But as always this is just talk until it has passed the Congress. There was another nominee announced for HUD to lead the Federal Housing Administration. The Obama Administration championed the extra $250 that everyone on disability will be receiving in the next month. Some might think that this is a positive, but I view it more as an insult and results in a lowering of their grade. I mean, these individuals have to figure out how to live on a small amount of money, and now the government is sending them a few coins to go out and spend. How about an increase in the disability check every month so that these Americans are not doomed to poverty for the rest of their lives?

The other items that the administration worked on this last week including more defense of the progressive budget for 2010, and Obama talked about veterans issues at a number of the press briefings. There was the answer to the question about homelessness at the press conference, which needed work but at least he answered the question. The big issue for this week, which gave the administration the most points was the Community Service bill that passed the Senate. This is a tripling of the number of mostly young Americans who will be working on reducing poverty. This is a huge step.

Brian

Grading the Administration 9

Weekly Grades for the Obama Administration on the Struggles to Reduce Poverty: D

I waited until after the 60 Minutes piece last night before assigning a grade in hopes that he would talk about housing, poverty or homelessness, but no such luck. Not much was announced about poverty issues this last week, and still only one of the agenda items has even been proposed from the poverty agenda. The middle class task force met which does not help those currently living in poverty. Most of the week was spent attempting to put out a fire started by AIG, and the executive pay problems. Obama also spent the week defending his proposed 2010 budget, which is unusual and keeps the administration out of the failure territory. The budget is extremely progressive so it does merit some points toward addressing poverty. The health care piece within the budget would benefit poor people, but will it withstand Congressional apprehension?

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.