• Welfare reform act • English-language channel Welfare reform act The Republican, Springfield, Mass. June 3, 2005 The landmark 1996 welfare reform act requiring almost all parents to work – including those with preschool age and younger children – is
• Welfare reform act
• English-language channel
Welfare reform act
The Republican, Springfield, Mass. June 3, 2005
The landmark 1996 welfare reform act requiring almost all parents to work – including those with preschool age and younger children – is due to expire at the end of the month, and legislation now before Congress calls for even stiffer work requirements.
The Bush administration’s rationale for the tougher rules was bluntly expressed by a White House spokesman, “Part-time work doesn’t get you out of poverty,” he said. “Let’s not have a system that throws a party when people get part-time jobs.”
Requiring parents to work full-time hours, however, means that they’ll have to pay more for child care. And that’s if they can find it.
Under the current system, childcare subsidies – and the nation’s supply of care providers – have not kept pace with the needs of hundreds of thousands of workers on welfare and other low-income workers who are not welfare-dependent.
Both groups of workers compete for the subsidies under the same federal grant. The amount of that grant has become the focus of the debate as the June 30 reauthorization deadline approaches. …
Without increased subsidies, poverty will continue to be a way of life for far too many Americans, and their children’s futures will be bleak. The societal price will be high. Surely, that’s nothing to party about.
English-language channel
The Moscow Times – June 8, 2005
If the purpose of the new English-language, 24-hour satellite television channel being created by the Kremlin is to improve Russia’s image and make Russia’s position better known abroad, then it has gotten off to an inauspicious start.
Confirmation that plans for the long-discussed television channel were going forward came late last week when RIA-Novosti, a state news agency, sent a release to media organizations abroad. RIA-Novosti must have understood that the news would quickly trickle back to Russia, and it did. …
This was the chance for the people behind the new channel to make a splash, to tell the world about their plans, to attract attention to their project.
Instead, the RIA-Novosti press office said it had no information about the channel and referred reporters to a news conference on Tuesday. Mikhail Lesin, a media adviser to President Vladimir Putin and a former press minister, who had long called for such a channel, also declined to comment Monday. …
The Kremlin could surprise us by creating a television channel capable of winning the confidence of international viewers by assembling a professional team and insisting on balanced reporting. Such a channel could go a long way toward improving understanding of Russia abroad.
But if the way in which the announcement of the new channel was made is any guide, Russia has a long way to go in learning how to get its message out.
