[Marxism] Clinton vs. Obama on Poverty Issues

[Louis Proyect]

(Posted on LBO-Talk by Doug Henwood)

http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1651
Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
News Release, February 19, 2008
Clinton vs. Obama on Poverty Issues

GWENDOLYN MINK
Co-editor of the two-volume Poverty in the United States: An 
Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy and author of Welfare's 
End, Mink said today: "Although Obama insists he is the candidate 'for 
change,' his record on poverty issues does not offer bold new visions 
for economic justice. Quite the opposite, in fact: Obama's top 
anti-poverty commitments repeat the well-worn bromides of Clinton-era 
welfare reform. Obama supports an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. 
Bill Clinton accomplished the first big EITC expansion in the early 
1990s. Obama sponsored responsible fatherhood legislation that links 
poverty reduction to fathers' contributions to families. Hillary Clinton 
introduced a responsible fatherhood bill several years before Obama, 
soon after she arrived in the Senate.

"At least on his website, he exclusively links poverty reduction to 
labor market reforms, and so neglects larger questions of economic 
justice for caregiving work performed for one's own dependent family 
members. Notably, Obama gives little attention to the interaction of 
inequalities in the lives of the poor, especially racial and gender 
inequality.

"The point is not that Obama is worse than Clinton on poverty -- 
certainly anyone who has engaged struggles against Temporary Assistance 
for Needy Families reauthorization knows that Clinton is not necessarily 
the better ally of the poor. The point is that Obama's record on poverty 
does not bear out the hype that he personifies change."