Poverty in California
Children hungry in richest state
By Adrian Garcia
Los Angeles
Why is there never a shortfall in funds when the government
promulgates war ventures?
The Bush administration is currently proclaiming to the U.S.
public and the world that "we" are facing years of war. This
shocking revelation garners little or no criticism from the
major, so-called democratic media. Considering that the U.S.
economy has been in decline, how is the Bush administration
planning to pay for these years of war?
While this juggernaut war drive steamrolls forward, poverty
continues to affect children throughout the country. The Bush
administration's war against terrorism is simultaneously a war
against the working class of the U.S. Nowhere is this more
evident than in the richest state in the union, California.
The Los Angeles Times reported on March 8 that the number of
California children living in poverty rose by 430,000 during
the go-go years of the 1990s. According to a study conducted by
Kids Count, a project that monitors children throughout the
U.S., 20 percent of California's children--nearly 1.8
million--live below the poverty level.
The response from Sacramento has been to move forward with
budget cuts that will undoubtedly hurt those who are poorest,
mainly immigrants and people of color.
In January Gov. Gray Davis proposed cutting $2.6 billion in
spending in the 2002-2003 budget. According to a Jan. 13
article in the Los Angeles Times, Davis is proposing to cut two
elements of the state's "welfare-to-work" program, CalWORKS.
The cuts will also freeze a cost-of-living increase in welfare
benefits and aid to the disabled. Adding to the constraints on
California's poor, the Bush administration announced it is
proceeding with plans to place welfare recipients in jobs that
pay less than minimum wage.
Don't expect a stimulus package from Washington to provide
aid in this dire situation. Congress is too busy granting $100
billion in tax breaks to the ruling class. While the poor in
California and the rest of the country face a gloomy and
uncertain future, the Pentagon has been granted an additional
$48 billion for its war drive.
The attack on the working-class people of California does
not stop here. The Los Angeles school board voted on March 5 to
cut spending for this fiscal year by $51 million. The Los
Angeles Times reported on March 6 that the cuts will take money
from accounts that had been earmarked for low-income schools.
Board President Caprice Young, in defense of the budget cuts,
had the audacity to claim: "These cuts today are not affecting
people." What Young actually meant was that the cuts won't
affect people who matter to the capitalists.
Los Angeles School Board Superintendent Roy Romer said the
cuts were the least disruptive choice. Unfortunately for the
poor, they are always on the wrong side of these choices. It
does not appear that the working-class people of Los Angeles
were consulted about the cuts that will be affecting their
children's education.
These decisions made at the expense of the poor expose the
moral bankruptcy of the capitalist system. The fact that
children are suffering is secondary. Cuban President Fidel
Castro made this poignantly clear during a 1997 Food Summit in
Rome, Italy. When delegates from countries around the world
proposed that the number of the world's malnourished children
be cut in half to 400 million, Castro protested by stating,
"The very modesty of these goals is shameful. The world has
enough food to feed everyone."
This nation certainly has enough wealth to care for its
children. Yet the ruling class moves ahead with budget cuts
while it funds wars that cause suffering around the world.
Reprinted from the March 28, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page