In August, Oregon Action and CAUSA held a joint rally to urge Senator Smith to support welfare re-authorization reforms that would help people out of poverty instead of punishing them for being poor.
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President Bush, coincidentally, scheduled a fundraising event for Senator Smith that evening. Supporters paid $25,000 to get a picture taken with him. Meanwhile, the average welfare benefit for a family is $364 per month. Bush proposes increasing the work requirement from 30 to 40 hours per month with no increase in benefits. In essence, folks working for welfare will be receive a cut from $2.80/hour for their work to $2.10/hour for their work. |
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| Over and over again, education has been proven to the be one constant strategy for moving people from welfare to work. Another component that demonstrates that the Bush proposal is about punishment, not poverty reduction is his demand that hours spent in education no longer be counted toward the first 24 hours of the work requirement. |  |
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1 in 7 children in Oregon live in poverty. Nationally, 1 in 6 children live in poverty. |
| Moureen Rosera, Portland Chapter, tells the gathered crowd that Education is the answer to poverty; not coerced marriage. |  |
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Khanh Le, State Board member from Eugene, talks about the need for restoring benefits to immigrant families. The ladder represents the steps needed to move people out of poverty. Cassandra Villanueva of CAUSA is holding the Smith sign.
After the Welfare Rights rally at Sen. Smith's office, we marched to the Hilton where President Bush was staying and joined in the protest there.
Below are a few photos from that protest. You can tell who are people are because they are holding blue balloons to keep us from losing each other in the crowds. |
