Lawmakers In Poorest States Fail Poverty Scorecard

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. poverty rate jumped to 14.3 percent in 2009 -- its highest level since 1994 -- while lawmakers in some of the poorest states consistently voted against key antipoverty measures, an advocacy group said on Monday.

In its annual "Poverty Scorecard", which grades members of Congress on their voting records on poverty-related legislation, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law found "there is often a negative correlation between a state's poverty rate and the voting record of its members, meaning the states with the highest poverty rates had delegations with the lowest average scores in voting to fight poverty."

Both senators in Mississippi, where one in five people are living in poverty, received an "F" for their antipoverty voting records in 2009. Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) voted against extending unemployment benefits, the Paycheck Fairness Act, an amendment to extend the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) jobs program, and ten other poverty-fighting bills that could have provided financial relief to their low-income constituents.

In South Carolina, which had a 17.1 percent poverty rate in 2009, six out of eight lawmakers received grades of "D" or lower on their antipoverty efforts, with Sen. Jim Demint (R-S.C.) earning the lowest possible grade of "F-" for voting down all of the 14 measures on the Center's list.

The "Scorecard" found that a significant percentage of lawmakers with poor voting records on antipoverty measures are from Southern states, including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Oklahoma, and that several states with higher-than-average poverty rates have Congressional delegates with good records in voting to fight poverty. Every delegate in New Mexico, for instance, earned an "A" for their efforts, despite the state's 18.1 percent poverty rate.

"We publish the Scorecard for the sake of transparency; so that people are able to see what their elected officials are doing to fight poverty," said the Center's Director of Economic Security Dan Lesser in a statement. "Our senators and representatives need to be held accountable for their efforts, or lack thereof, in this fight."

The Census Bureau defined poverty in 2009 as an annual income of less than $21,954 for a family of four and $10,956 for an individual. About 43.6 million Americans lived below the poverty line last year -- the highest number in 51 years -- and the poverty rate for children under 18 jumped to a whopping 20.7 percent.

"With a mind-boggling 44 million Americans living in poverty in 2009; it was imperative that our elected representatives enact measures in 2010 to try to reverse the trend," said Lesser. "Some of them chose to act, while some didn't, and we as voters need to know that."

Comments

[dbishop76]

11:13 AM on 02/09/2011

So, this is what cutting waste looks like?

[pita143]

04:59 PM on 02/08/2011

The poor do not contribute to reelection campaigns like the companies who receive Corporate Welfare and create little or no jobs. It's time to stop ALL Corporate Welfare unless it is productive in creating jobs. NO JOBS, NO MONEY. Far too many companies in NY State did nothing but change their names, called Shirt Changing, and got huge tax breaks because all the employees were now NEW employees and the company got tax credits.

[Frog in a pot]

01:30 PM on 02/08/2011

They want their constituants poor and ignorant and fighting over crumbs.

[Oceras]

10:52 PM on 02/08/2011

They want their constituents poor, ignorant, and easily manipulated into voting against their own self-interests.

[CB5]

12:31 PM on 02/08/2011

Our country is not balanced. One reason: Politicians and the wealthy who could care less about the people who they are suppose to represent. What a good example we set as a WORLD LEADER. As a country that can't even solve their own problems. And we spend more money than not on other countries and their democracies. What about our own?

[arachne646]

12:24 PM on 02/08/2011

There's a persistent problem with racism in America being swept under the rug. You don't have to be a malicious Aryan Nations or KKK type violent racist to be racist. You don't even have to be a humorous Archie Bunker type racist. You only have to be offended if you are outrageously offended if an opionion you hold, or fact you display, is called racist. Of course, ordinary rules of civilized discourse apply, but it is not an insult to call an opinion or a falsely reasoned conclusion racist. We all live in a racist society, even if very few of us are consciously, maliciously, racist. (But I think this is not as true as many of us privileged to be in the white community like to think)

Poverty and race are closely linked in America. Welfare mother=black woman (other adjective here). Racism stops latinos, others, whites, and blacks from working together to move ahead out of poverty in this rich country. Wall Street is the one who most benefits from poverty and racism, not white working people, since they're in, or on the way to, poverty now.

Criticizing the poor or blaming the racists won't solve the problem. Americans have to work together to register people to vote. Lobbyists don't vote. They pay legislators to vote for poverty. Whatever people's ancestry is, if they are poor, they need to vote, for you, I, and everyman.

[powhitemanIII]

10:21 AM on 02/08/2011

Republican Machiavellians want their people to pliable and controllable and the best way to do that is to keep them poor and hungry. But, their followers are like Lemmings that are willing to follow their leaders even if it means falling off a cliff.

[BEvans]

10:25 AM on 02/08/2011

Whereas the Left wants to continue to support their lifestyle by stealing from those that actually pay taxes and give it to those with their hands out. The Left want to control the masses by blinding them with FREE money...the sheep will follow the money as they drag this country down by their clueless spending and PC vision.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

01:07 PM on 02/08/2011

Paranoid much, I notice there's a big problem in the red client states. Clean up your house before complaining about liberals, I'm tired of my taxes going to subsidize whiners like you.

[Democrat in the South]

09:41 AM on 02/08/2011

Me too. :-)

[pattileigh]

09:37 AM on 02/08/2011

Southerners vote for their prestigious ideals not for their own well being. As long as they hate those who are different they will be dragged downward. Just check where they stand in education. Keep em dumb is the Republican motto because once they become educated they will vote the bums out.

[ladylove114]

10:15 AM on 02/08/2011

Yep, like the poor people in the Miss. Delta. Keep voting for Bennie Thompson. Uh Oh, he's a Democrat.

[Alex Russell]

04:12 PM on 02/08/2011

I think that is it insanely unfair and ignorant of you to make such a rash generalization about Southerners. You keep saying "they" to encompass an entire section of the nation in your tainted comment. You also make a inference that all southerners are Republican. What horrible experience did you ever have with a southerner to give you the right to be so blindly hateful towards them? I am a proud, well educated southerner. I am not Republican and I am, in fact, gay. I would say that would make me "different" by your standards right? I'm simply saying that your point, however misguided it is, would be more well received if you didn't insult thousands of people you don't know.

[Cambridge9]

09:32 AM on 02/08/2011

IMHO the lawmaker from these states realize that the impoverished are the LEAST LIKELY to vote - and maybe vote them out of office.  So by keeping them impoverished they will keep their jobs in Congress/Senate where they can work for those who tend to buy their votes!

[ladylove114]

09:35 AM on 02/08/2011

Bennie Thompsons, African American Congressman, representing the Miss. Delta blows your theory right out of the water.

[Democrat in the South]

09:42 AM on 02/08/2011

?

[silverball]

09:53 AM on 02/08/2011

...one rep does NOT make a good rebuttal....why do you think the republi-CONS scream voter "fraud" so much, went after acorn like they did (with lies and heavily edited video) and were replacing the federal attys in states/districts they refused to file false suits and go after voter "fraud" bs???.... they are famous for voter suppression...read "minorities" disenfranchisement...see florida 2000 and ohio 2004 voter results....minorities generally vote democratic...hence the republi-CONS chicken little syndrome of voter registration...if you doubt any of this, spend a little time with "the google"....won't take long.....

[FALCON72]

09:05 AM on 02/08/2011

You could add up the amount of food stamp dollars, subsidized housing and even the unemployment benefits of the out of work middle class for one state and it still would not be as much as the tax credits given to corporations, the farm subsidies. But it is always the poor who are the bad people.

[chiodo08]

09:01 AM on 02/08/2011

all redneck states...no surprises there. Hopefully the bad winter will entice more and more well educated forward thinking northerners to take over down south....

[den1953]

09:01 AM on 02/08/2011

This is what happens when you have law makers that are so hung up on their own egos and agenda's they only are concerned with the people that put them there around election cycles, but what better way to continue your career by locking out the poor that have a chance to get you out of your cushy Government job!

[thedisassociation]

08:58 AM on 02/08/2011

As a southerner, I'm not surprised. Peole down here have a long history of supporting those groups that would seek to hurt them the most, the Tea Party being the best example of this.

[Democrat in the South]

09:30 AM on 02/08/2011

Welcome. Proud to be #1.

[Cambridge9]

09:36 AM on 02/08/2011

The other thought is this.  The impoverished are so busy trying to just survive that are the least likely to take part in politics.  That means they poor are probably NOT going to vote and these reps are able to be bought and paid for by the wealthy and corporations - and then always vote in their favor.  The poor are simply ignored and if they perish then it will cost the state less.

[theuniversalcollective]

08:50 AM on 02/08/2011

People in southern states still do not want to be responsible for the harms they have done and continue to do to other human beings, there's a reason people still make fun of the south, good ones.

[Villagesviewpoint]

08:44 AM on 02/08/2011

What is painfully clear is the political divide shown here. I looked at Florida, Michigan & Georgia and found what no doubt is consistent in the other states as well, is that the attitudes & voting tendencies are agreed upon in lock step with both parties.

In "THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD" we have the "HAVES" refusing the "HAVE NOT'S" sustenance and social economic resources to survive, while they compound their fortunes off the very people, they so despise.

If this is what makes us such a great country, how does it differ from what we are currently seeing in North Africa with the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt? I'll tell you how it differs, it is the haves threatening to take over the government in this country, and have not's in N. Africa.

The similarities are that the ruling parties, the "HAVES", don't give a damn about the "HAVE NOT'S", but in N. Africa the "HAVES" don't have to fight for power, they own it, lock stock and barrel, where in the U.S. we have a little something called "DEMOCRACY" and it just drives the "HAVES" in our country nuts.

Isn't democracy great, where civil liberties are doled out by political parties, and not by those of conscience those with compassion and caring, you know those who "BELIEVE" in the "BIBLE".