August jobs numbers

[sokinwet]

Cut & paste not my specialty but here's a spinless description of the actual HHS policy

The HHS memo

Since 1996, welfare has been administered through block grants to states through a program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. TANF, as it’s called, limits how long families can get aid and requires recipients to eventually go to work. It also includes stringent reporting requirements for states to show they are successfully moving people off welfare and and into the workforce.

A memo from George Sheldon, the acting assistant secretary at HHS, said the department wanted to give states more flexibility in meeting those requirements. The memo notifies states "of the Secretary’s willingness to exercise her waiver authority ... to allow states to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies, and procedures that are designed to improve employment outcomes for needy families."

The memo outlined, using the jargon of a federal bureaucracy, the kinds of waivers that would be considered. It suggested projects that "improve collaboration with the workforce and/or post-secondary education systems" and "demonstrate strategies for more effectively serving individuals with disabilities," to give two examples.

What does all that mean?

"If you can do a better job connecting people to work, we would consider waiving certain parts of the performance measures and use alternate measures," is how Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, translated the memo’s point. (The center supports the plan.)

Schott, who studies welfare policy, said TANF sets guidelines for what activities may count toward meeting the law’s work requirements: jobs, job training, internships or school, to name a few. Beyond that, it puts restrictions on how many hours a welfare client may spend at school, or how many consecutive months they can attend before that activity no longer counts toward the work requirement.

The result: "States are running less-effective programs than they might be, because they are so driven by performance measurement as it’s set forth in the federal law," Schott said.

The waivers, then, would allow for flexibility. For example, someone with a special-needs child might require different work arrangements than are currently allowed. Or a person who needs to improve his or her English skills might need more time to take classes.

"It’s really about the underlying program," Schott said. "The real starting place is: What’s the most effective program to get this person to work?"

Romney’s assertion

In a memo released along with the ad, the Romney campaign says the change "undermines the very premise of welfare reform. It is an insult to Americans on welfare who are looking for an opportunity to build better lives for themselves. And it is a kick in the gut to the millions of hard-working middle-class taxpayers struggling in today’s economy, working more for less but always preferring self-sufficiency to a government handout."

Obama, it says, "hopes states will consider approaches that remove work participation rate requirements all together."

The HHS letter contains no such language. In several places, it says only proposals from states that "improve employment outcomes" will be considered.

It’s important to note, however, that the waivers would not just be a change on paper. Schott said it’s possible that waivers will allow states to get credit under the work requirement for things that don’t count currently.

That possibility has critics of the proposal up in arms. Robert Rector, a welfare expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said it could ultimately allow "state bureaucrats" to count activities that aren't really work.

We should point out that those concerns are at odds with the policy's stated goal of encouraging employment.

The Romney campaign also contends that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is not legally allowed to waive the existing work requirements. Rector argues that the part of the law allowing waivers does not cover TANF work provisions.

"Critically, this section, as well as most other TANF requirements, is deliberately not listed... its provisions cannot be waived," Rector wrote in a July 12 column in the National Review.

We think that’s a noteworthy point, but it’s one that a court will have to settle.

Our ruling

Romney’s ad says, "Under Obama’s plan (for welfare), you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check."

That's a drastic distortion of the planned changes to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. By granting waivers to states, the Obama administration is seeking to make welfare-to-work efforts more successful, not end them. What’s more, the waivers would apply to individually evaluated pilot programs -- HHS is not proposing a blanket, national change to welfare law.

The ad tries to connect the dots to reach this zinger: "They just send you your welfare check." The HHS memo in no way advocates that practice. In fact, it says the new policy is "designed to improve employment outcomes for needy families."

The ad’s claim is not accurate, and it inflames old resentments about able-bodied adults sitting around collecting public assistance. Pants on Fire!

[Tagger]

Boston/Cambridge is booming .. Our area was the last to go down (filenes) and looks like the 1st to recover .. Streets filled with suits again who are working .. You don't see this ? Just look in the sky and count the cranes ,, and that's only the jobs that require cranes .. GM is #1 again ,, back from the dead ,, sorry ,, things are looking up in my eyes . and I did spend time on unenjoyement post Bush ..

[RIJIMMY]

This increase in the numbers of recently unemployed and the concerted drive by the Patrick Administration to get the poor and elderly who qualify to participate in the program have elevated the numbers of those on food stamps in Massachusetts to the highest levels in history.The upward trend, which is particularly distinct in Dorchester, is reflected state-wide – in the past four years, Massachusetts has seen a 74 percent spike in program participation, with about 11 percent of the state’s population receiving assistance for food.

Julia Kehoe, the state official in charge of administering the federally funded program in her role as commissioner of the Department of Transitional Assistance, says the cause of the rise in the numbers goes beyond the hike in unemployment figures.

“The reason for the increase statewide is twofold: one is the economy, but the other is that we’re simplifying the program, improving access,” she said.In its effort to increase the impact of the food stamps program, now referred to as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Kehoe said the department reached out specifically to groups who had been under-represented in past years: the elderly, those who were unaware of their eligibility, and people who viewed the program as too burdensome to apply for.

In Massachusetts, some 750,000 people are currently enrolled in the program and Kehoe’s department anticipates the numbers of names on the rolls will continue to increase.

so we make it easier and now more people apply and received aid and it viewed as a sucesss. Crazy but I thought success would be to get as many people as possible OFF aid?

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Tagger

Boston/Cambridge is booming .. Our area was the last to go down (filenes) and looks like the 1st to recover .. Streets filled with suits again who are working .. You don't see this ? Just look in the sky and count the cranes ,, and that's only the jobs that require cranes .. GM is #1 again ,, back from the dead ,, sorry ,, things are looking up in my eyes . and I did spend time on unenjoyement post Bush ..

GM is at 40% products outsourced to China.
You probably don't see that but sure do on my end every time we order parts. Made in China.
Word Is GMS goal is to get that 40% up to 90%.
Those same union slugs that think Obama saved them will be unemployed and on his welfare program eventually.
GM is a piece of #^&#^&#^&#^& product !
We used to laugh not that long ago at Hyundai & Kia.
Not laughing now.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[spence]

Originally Posted by Raider Ronnie

GM is at 40% products outsourced to China. You probably don't see that but sure do on my end every time we order parts. Made in China. Word Is GMS goal is to get that 40% up to 90%.

I'd doubt that 40% of parts are from China. Average is probably about 50% from outside the US...a lot of these come from Mexico and a lot of higher end components are still Europe.

There also may be differences in OEM parts vs replacement, even if it's through GM.

Aftermarket is increasingly moving to Asia. First it was to Mexico (thanks NAFTA) and now China. They're usually made to a more general spec and are cheaper to produce as a result.

With how global the automotive industry is, GM may be sourcing components from China...but then the Chinese companies will source from Delphi, Visteon etc... here in the states.

The point being, the % of foreign parts in your GM probably doesn't reflect on the health of the domestic auto supply chain.

-spence

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by spence

I'd doubt that 40% of parts are from China. Average is probably about 50% from outside the US...a lot of these come from Mexico and a lot of higher end components are still Europe.

There also may be differences in OEM parts vs replacement, even if it's through GM.

Aftermarket is increasingly moving to Asia. First it was to Mexico (thanks NAFTA) and now China. They're usually made to a more general spec and are cheaper to produce as a result.

With how global the automotive industry is, GM may be sourcing components from China...but then the Chinese companies will source from Delphi, Visteon etc... here in the states.

The point being, the % of foreign parts in your GM probably doesn't reflect on the health of the domestic auto supply chain.

-spence

OEM parts are more & more from China. Used to be Mexico and some from Canada.
I see it every week.
As for aftermarket. Most of that stuff we see (body not mechanical) is out of Japan. And to be honest, compare an OEM GM fender, hood, ect... The aftermarket more times than not is better now.