What To Say To Billy-Bob? Poverty Rate Climbs, And Keeps Climbing

OldSouth has a good friend, who shall be called Billy-Bob. A good Southern name for a truly decent Southern Gentleman.

OS, for reasons that can never be disclosed here, owes so much of the happiness of his family to Billy-Bob's generosity of spirit. BB made some crucial phone calls a few years back, and changed history in a positive direction for this family. He never had to, and OS didn't even know how crucial those phone calls would be at the time. BB just did it, 'cuz he's a generous soul, and knew it needed to be done. He's one of those kinds of people.

BB is a convicted, passionate, Obama-loving liberal. He also has made some lifestyle choices that OS would not have made. BB's the reason OS scratches his head and wonders about people, and tries not to paint private people with whom he agrees or disagrees with too broad a brush. BB cuts across all expectations and breaks all the rules. And he's one of the most decent people OS has ever had the honor of knowing.


So, BB posts this link on his Facebook page.

From BB's favorite newspaper, the Yew Nork Times:

Forty-four million people in the United States, or one in seven residents, lived in poverty in 2009, an increase of 4 million from the year before, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday.

The poverty rate climbed to 14.3 percent — the highest level since 1994 — from 13.2 percent in 2008. The rise was steepest for children, with one in five residents under 18 living below the official poverty line, the bureau said.

The report provides the most detailed picture yet of the impact of the recession and unemployment on incomes, especially at the bottom of the scale. It also suggested that the temporary increases in benefits in aid provided in last year’s stimulus bill eased the burdens on millions of families.

Those temporary increases are just that, and that money will run out. Congress is not going to authorize another hundreds of non-existent billions in 'emergency spending' to keep welfare benefits and food stamps going indefinitely. OS had to explain to a visitor from overseas last week that one in about seven people in this country are on some sort of public assistance.

It's scandalous, previously unimaginable.

How does OS suggest to BB that the very Democrat people and policies he has so adored for so long have helped create the terrible poverty he now grieves?

The Right, for its part, has really skewed the discussion for years, focusing on a small set of hot-button social issues, and ignoring the obvious overwhelming moral failure of a government that has pushed so many people over the cliff into poverty and despair.

How does OS explain to the Religious Right that, while they were beating their breasts over the social/moral issue of the year (pick one, they have a long list), the very Republican politicians they had passionately supported were systematically destroying the future of their children and grandchildren. Now that's truly a moral issue!

A lot of folks, especially in the Religious Right, won't even speak to BB, because of his way of life. They just assume he's hell-bound, and the sooner the better. BB won't talk to anyone from the Right--they've gone out of their way to be utterly horrible to him. Why should he?

OS fears we are approaching a point where we run out of credible, sane voices in the public square, in every corner of the culture.

We are in profound need of grownups who can understand math, and understand that the Ten Commandments and Our Lord's summary of the law and prophets are not suggestions, nor are they weapons for beating people we don't approve of into submission. He never employed them that way, and neither should we. They are, even for the non-religious, a path to sanity.

And, that in our generation, the bits about not stealing, coveting, murdering, and bearing false witness deserve extra attention.

For the sake of OS and his family, as well as BB and his.