The only people who don't support the EITC are a few misguided lefts who insist without a scintilla of evidence that it's an employer subsidy . It's not clear what the fatherhood legislation is about, but the extent of non-payment of child support by men is huge. If that's not a feminist issue, there are no feminist issues.
Caregiving support is still a frontier for mainstream politicians. Nobody is doing much or is likely to do much very soon, though if American minus LBO elects Democrats we might see some movement.
I haven't read the piece, but the excerpt here does not encourage me to look further.
Doug Henwood wrote:
> <http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?
> articleId=1651&type=&searchterms=mink>
>
> Clinton vs. Obama on Poverty Issues
> February 19, 2008
>
> 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."
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>