Washblog

Comments from the public are invited until August 15th.
"For the [Congressional]record," here is my comment to the committee: For inclusion in the public record as a comment to the Ways & Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support:

Many thanks to my Congressman McDermott for addressing this issue. I have worked and volunteered in social service agencies in Seattle for much of the past 10 years.  It is always frustrating to hear someone quote the numbers of people below "poverty level," when we know that most social service agencies use "two times the poverty level" as their qualifier for those in need of services. As you have demonstrated in your hearing, the current level is vastly out of date.  It sends the wrong message to the voting public, and may create guilt among working class people who know they aren't making ends meet, but who aren't officially "poor." The rational response for public policymakers, as well as the compassionate response, is to change the definition now.