The Enduring Legacy of Bushenomics

Food Insecurity

A new government report released by the Department of Agriculture highlights the serious and growing problem of food insecurity in the United States. According to the New York Times, the Bush administration tried to quash this report but the Obama administration has embraced it as emblematic of the the challenges facing the country.

The report, titled Household Food Security in the United States 2008, documents the seriousness of food insecurity in the richest nation on earth, at the time that families are preparing to gorge themselves at the Thanksgiving table. To watch television during the month of November, or browse the newspaper ads, one would get the impression that the US is a land of abundance when it comes to food. But, just a cursory reading of this report should be enough to convince even the most jaded conservative otherwise.

According to this USDA study, in 2008 14.6% of all US households, or 17 million households, experienced food insecurity at least some time during the year, representing an 11.1% increase over the previous year. Included in this number are 6.7 million households classified as having experienced very low food security. These numbers of families experiencing food insecurity are the highest recorded since the government started keeping track of food insecurity in 1995.

These numbers though are not consistent throughout the country. Food insecurity was most prevalent in the South (or as Sarah Palin refers to this region, “the real America”) and least prevalent in the Northeast. The demographic groups experiencing rates higher than the national average included single-parent households, Black and Hispanic households and families living at or below the poverty level.

According to the USDA definition, food insecurity/security is “based on the respondents perception of whether the household was able to obtain enough food to meet their needs. The measure does not specifically address whether the household’s food intake was sufficient for active, healthy lives.” Therefore, a condition that could affect a larger portion of the population than food insecurity is “nutritional insecurity,” or subsisting on a diet that satisfies hunger but is not sufficient to maintain an active, healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately the newly released statistics in obesity in the US supports this concept. A recent study by Johns Hopkins University reveals that approximately 1/3 of all adults in the US are obese. Much of this is a result of the availability of cheaper, less nutritious and higher fat and caloric foods. The authors of this study predict that if current trends continue, by 2018 43% of US adults will be obese costing $344 billion annually in health related expenditures.

Homelessness

Another sign of the devastating impact that Bushenomics has had on poor and working Americans is the increase in homeless individuals and families. A recent report by the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities highlights the seriousness of this long neglected result of failed economic policies and gaping holes in the social safety net. Up to date statistics on homelessness do not exist. However, this January 2009 report does paint a pretty bleak picture of this serious and growing problem. The researchers found that between July and November 2008, in the waning days of the Bush administration, homeless families seeking shelter in New York City jumped by 40%. They found similar increases across the country. Massachusetts reported a 32% increase in families residing in state-funded shelters from November 2007 to November 2008. The researchers found that Connecticut had been forced to turn away 30% more homeless families due to a lack of bed space. In Minneapolis, the study found a 20% increase in families seeing shelter in the first ten months of 2008 as compared to the same period in 2007. And, Los Angeles County experienced a 12% increase in the number of families receiving welfare benefits who were known to be homeless.

Poverty and Unemployment

Based upon their findings that poverty and low income are contributing factors to homelessness among families the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities postulates a correlation between unemployment and the rising rate of homelessness. The study predicts that if unemployment were to rise to 9%, the number of people living in poverty would increase by 10 million, included in this is a projected increase of six million very poor, including an additional one million children. One result of this increase in poverty would be a resultant increase in homelessness.

But this report is already dated. The current official estimate of the unemployment rate for October is 10.2%, effecting 15.7 million workers, the highest rate in twenty-six years. And that I only the “official” rate, the true rate of unemployment has been estimated to be a high as 16%. The government’s estimate is artificially lowered by not including underemployed and part-time workers, and those who have stopped actively looking for work because they have become discouraged. It also does not include new workers just entering the workforce.

War

$933.5 billion wasted on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that does not even begin to take into account the numbers of dead and wounded young Americans and scores of Iraqi and Afghani civilians. Imagine what $933.5 billion could have bought in improved quality of life right here in the United States and good will around the world by helping to alleviate hunger. disease, malnutrition and illiteracy.

Katrina

Failed government policy that has let hundreds of thousands of displaced families scattered across the country, or living in substandard conditions in government-run trailer parks

It is President Obama’s unenviable task to try to clean up the mess left behind by the Bush administration. While he tries to do this, the Republican right has unleashed a barrage of criticism because he ahs not solved the problems that their policies have created. It is these economic policies that have brought the country to the brink of ruin and placed us in many social-economic indicators at the level of developing countries and far behind every other western-industrialized nation.