Poverty

From an article of the same title in USA Today by Richard Wolf:

A 10-year-old national program that has helped 6.6 million children get health insurance faces cutbacks here Sunday, and more states could follow unless Congress grants new funding. Georgia's PeachCare for Kids program, part of the national Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), will freeze enrollment because of a federal funding shortfall that threatens 13 other states. New Jersey, Iowa, Mississippi and other states say cuts may be required later this year. The program - which provides subsidized insurance for children whose families are not eligible for Medicaid - has helped trim the percentage of uninsured kids nationwide to 11.2% in 2005 from 15% in 1997. It is running out of money because of inflation, higher enrollment and program expansions.

Democrats in Congress want to add $745 million to a bill funding the Iraq war to take care of this year's shortfalls. Unless the federal government raises its $5 billion annual stake, however, 35 states could face shortfalls by 2012, and 1.5 million children could lose coverage. Advocates see the program as a precursor to universal coverage. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and others want to spend $60 billion over five years to enroll an additional 6 million eligible children whose families are either unaware of the program or have chosen not to join. President Bush wants to add $4.8 billion over five years but refocus on poor children. Fourteen states cover adults under the children's program.

There's a shortage of funding but states are covering adults under the children's program?

From an article of the same title by Jesse Jackson in the Chicago Sun-Times:

We glimpsed misery in America during Katrina, as the poor were stranded in the storm. But those shocking pictures were misleading. America has a growing poverty problem, but it doesn't look like New Orleans. Most poor people are not black or brown. Most poor people are white. They are disproportionately young, female and single. Most of them are not on welfare. They work every day that they can -- but they still cannot lift their families out of poverty. An analysis of 2005 census figures by Tony Pugh for McClatchy Newspapers revealed almost 16 million Americans living in "deep or severe poverty," with the percentage of the poor living in severe poverty reaching a 32-year high. Our rich are getting richer and our poor, poorer. Severe poverty is defined as half the federal poverty line, or an annual income of less than about $10,000 for a family of four, and about $5,000 for an individual. With food stamps, tax credits and food and clothing banks, the extremely poor can survive -- but not much more than that.

We spend a smaller percentage of our resources on federal anti-poverty programs than other industrial nations. Only Russia and Mexico do a worse job of reducing poverty through government intervention. Americans are a generous, not a mean, people. We support private charities, particularly in the wake of human catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina. But this conservative era has taught many to disdain government and to be suspicious of any program of support for the poor. Somehow the billion-dollar subsidies to big oil companies enjoying record profits do not generate the anger that is sparked by programs to lift poor mothers and children out of poverty. Racial divides no doubt play a part. In Sweden or Finland, the poor are not distinguished by color or race. It is easier, perhaps, for citizens of those countries to think that there, but for the grace of God, go I. In the United States, most poor people are white, but most images and reporting on the poor centers on black and brown people in our inner cities. It is easier to think these people are undeserving, alien and unworthy of support. So the numbers of the desperately poor grow, the level of support declines, and the gulf between rich and poor yawns ever wider. We are a better country than that. Or at least we'd like to think so.