``..Who was voting to expand the U.S. welfare state in the 1960s and 1970? And who was it who promised to end welfare as -we know it - and did?..'' Doug
``...First, as noted, there were more Dems in the 1960s to make those votes. But if you look at the tax and budget bills of 1993, you see a very progressive set of policies-- massively expanding the EITC while raising taxes on the wealthy to fund expansion of a number of other programs...'' Nathan Newman
----------
As for EITC and the liberalism of the DP, back in the days, one of the most hotly contested programs under OEO was not a cheepy tax credit, but direct income subsidy to literally pay the poor up to modest working class income levels. These projects were attempted in a very few selected regions.
The project was an experiment to test if or how employment patterns changed under the impact of direct federal income subsidies (not AFDC). Most of the participants got jobs and moved out of poverty. In other words the experiment worked just fine. Of course it was killed by the economics experts at OEO as unfeasible. (This might have become the model used under Clinton's welfare reform, minus the the most important part, which was direct reverse income support...)
Here is a question for you both. Who did Nixon appoint to head OEO after his re-election and how long did OEO last after that?
And here's another one. Guess who ran the economic analysis wing with the charge of making OEO projects `accountable' and pushed to kill the community action projects, including the income subsidy projects during the late Johnson administration?
These are famous names today. They are heels. One big one, one little one. One Repugnant and one Demicrap. And here's the give away hint. One man, one woman.
[I don't know this stuff off the top of my head. I am reading about it in Alice O'Connor, Poverty Knowledge. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in sociology, poverty, and public policy...]
CG