{"id":678,"date":"2009-02-02T13:49:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-02T13:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html"},"modified":"2009-02-02T13:49:49","modified_gmt":"2009-02-02T13:49:49","slug":"a-compassion-gap-on-welfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html","title":{"rendered":"A Compassion Gap on Welfare?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times’ Jason DeParle<\/a> has an important piece today documenting that among the states with highest unemployment increases, half chose to cut welfare benefits rather than boosting them.
\nDuring the welfare reform debates of the 1990s, governors said, in effect: take away federal requirements and we’ll do right by our folks, especially since these programs go only to families with children. Some liberals resisted that argument on political grounds: sure…you say that now, but during hard budgetary times, the poor — who have no political influence — will be cut back…when they need it most.
\nOf the states with the biggest increases in joblessness, the following cut their welfare rolls:
\nRhode Island
\nGeorgia
\nAlabama
\nIllinois
\nTennessee
\nLouisiana
\nThose that increased welfare as unemployment rose:
\nFlorida
\nNevada
\nIdaho
\nCalifornia
\nNorth Carolina
\nArizona
\nOther states that cut welfare roles significantly during these hard tmes:
\nTexas
\nMichigan
\nLouisiana
\nGeorgia
\nTo see how you’re state fared, look at the map on NYTimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times’ Jason DeParle has an important piece today documenting that among the states with highest unemployment increases, half chose to cut welfare benefits rather than boosting them. During the welfare reform debates of the 1990s, governors said, in effect: take away federal requirements and we’ll do right by our folks, especially since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nA Compassion Gap on Welfare? - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Compassion Gap on Welfare? - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times’ Jason DeParle has an important piece today documenting that among the states with highest unemployment increases, half chose to cut welfare benefits rather than boosting them. During the welfare reform debates of the 1990s, governors said, in effect: take away federal requirements and we’ll do right by our folks, especially since…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-02T13:49:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"swaldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Compassion Gap on Welfare? - Steven Waldman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Compassion Gap on Welfare? - Steven Waldman","og_description":"The New York Times’ Jason DeParle has an important piece today documenting that among the states with highest unemployment increases, half chose to cut welfare benefits rather than boosting them. During the welfare reform debates of the 1990s, governors said, in effect: take away federal requirements and we’ll do right by our folks, especially since…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html","og_site_name":"Steven Waldman","article_published_time":"2009-02-02T13:49:49+00:00","author":"swaldman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html","name":"A Compassion Gap on Welfare? - Steven Waldman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-02-02T13:49:49+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-02T13:49:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2009\/02\/a-compassion-gap-on-welfare.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Compassion Gap on Welfare?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/","name":"Steven Waldman","description":"Author of 'Founding Faith'","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded","name":"swaldman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","caption":"swaldman"},"description":"Steven Waldman is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Beliefnet. He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Review, The Atlantic, Slate, and many others.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/author\/swaldman"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}