It's hard to imagine discussing welfare policy without discussing race, yet all too often this uncomfortable factor is avoided or simply ignored. Sometimes the relationship between welfare and race is treated as so self-evident as to need no further attention; equally often, race in the context of welfare is glossed over, lest it raise hard questions about racism in American society as a whole. Either way, ducking the issue misrepresents the facts and misleads the public and policy-makers alike. Many scholars have addressed specific aspects of this subject, but until now there has been no single integrated overview. Race and the Politics of Welfare Reform is designed to fill this need and provide a forum for a range of voices and perspectives that reaffirm the key role race has played--and continues to play--in our approach to poverty. The essays collected here offer a systematic, step-by-step approach to the issue. Part 1 traces the evolution of welfare from the 1930s to the sweeping Clinton-era reforms, providing a historical context within which to consider today's attitudes and strategies. Part 2 looks at media representation and public perception, observing, for instance, that although blacks accounted for only about one-third of America's poor from 1967 to 1992, they featured in nearly two-thirds of news stories on poverty, a bias inevitably reflected in public attitudes. Part 3 discusses public discourse, asking questions like "Whose voices get heard and why?" and "What does 'race' mean to different constituencies?" For although "old-fashioned" racism has been replaced by euphemism, many of the same underlying prejudices still drive welfare debates--and indeed are all the more pernicious for being unspoken. Part 4 examines policy choices and implementation, showing how even the best-intentioned reform often simply displaces institutional inequities to the individual level--bias exercised case by case but no less discriminatory in effect. Part 5 explores the effects of welfare reform and the implications of transferring policy-making to the states, where local politics and increasing use of referendum balloting introduce new, often unpredictable concerns. Finally, Frances Fox Piven's concluding commentary, "Why Welfare Is Racist," offers a provocative response to the views expressed in the pages that have gone before--intended not as a "last word" but rather as the opening argument in an ongoing, necessary, and newly envisioned national debate. Sanford Schram is Visiting Professor of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. Joe Soss teaches in the Department of Government at the Graduate school of Public Affairs, American University, Washington, D.C. Richard Fording is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Kentucky.

After a great deal of discussion and debate across all levels of government, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law in March 2010. Since President Trump's election into office, the ACA has stayed in the headlines. Trump has continued to call for the replacement and repeal of the ACA, and several efforts have spawned in both the House and the Senate to accomplish this goal. Unlike welfare reform, which was generally embraced by all states, the ACA has proven very divisive in some states, with some states actively seeking to block implementation. Alternative solutions continue to prove elusive. To better understand the major factors driving decision-making process and state-level dynamics influencing state support or opposition of the ACA, this book examines the initial implementation through established support and opposition factors across four states: Alabama, Michigan, California, and New Hampshire. The choices made by states are a direct consequence of long-term forces, and the choices made at the national level. State Politics and the Affordable Care Act will be of interest to scholars researching in public administration, policy formulation and implementation, and policy analysis.

After a great deal of discussion and debate across all levels of government, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law in March 2010. Since President Trump's election into office, the ACA has stayed in the headlines. Trump has continued to call for the replacement and repeal of the ACA, and several efforts have spawned in both the House and the Senate to accomplish this goal. Unlike welfare reform, which was generally embraced by all states, the ACA has proven very divisive in some states, with some states actively seeking to block implementation. Alternative solutions continue to prove elusive. To better understand the major factors driving decision-making process and state-level dynamics influencing state support or opposition of the ACA, this book examines the initial implementation through established support and opposition factors across four states: Alabama, Michigan, California, and New Hampshire. The choices made by states are a direct consequence of long-term forces, and the choices made at the national level. State Politics and the Affordable Care Act will be of interest to scholars researching in public administration, policy formulation and implementation, and policy analysis.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) requires the establishment of significant new state-level structures by the year 2014. This document summarizes major requirements and policy choices for states between now and 2014, and describes other components of the ACA that do not involve state implementation but have state budgetary impacts. The two most significant ACA requirements for state implementation between now and 2014 are: 1. To establish health insurance exchanges for individuals and small businesses 2. To expand Medicaid coverage to cover all those up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (138 percent with the five percent income disregard), regardless of categorical eligibility.

The balance between state and federal health care financing for low-income people has been a matter of considerable debate for the last 40 years. Some argue for a greater federal role, others for more devolution of responsibility to the states. Medicaid, the backbone of the system, has been plagued by an array of problems that have made it unpopular and difficult to use to extend health care coverage. In recent years, waivers have given the states the flexibility to change many features of their Medicaid programs; moreover, the states have considerable flexibility to in establishing State Children's Health Insurance Programs. This book examines the record on the changing health safety net. How well have states done in providing acute and long-term care services to low-income populations? How have they responded to financial incentives and federal regulatory requirements? How innovative have they been? Contributing authors include Donald J. Boyd, Randall R. Bovbjerg, Teresa A. Coughlin, Ian Hill, Michael Housman, Robert E. Hurley, Marilyn Moon, Mary Beth Pohl, Jane Tilly, and Stephen Zuckerman.

New York Times Bestseller • Notable Book of the Year • Editors' Choice Selection One of Bill Gates’ “Amazing Books” of the Year One of Publishers Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction An NPR Best Book of the Year Winner of the Hillman Prize for Nonfiction Gold Winner • California Book Award (Nonfiction) Finalist • Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History) Finalist • Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize This “powerful and disturbing history” exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review). Widely heralded as a “masterful” (Washington Post) and “essential” (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law offers “the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation” (William Julius Wilson). Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. A groundbreaking, “virtually indispensable” study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history (Chicago Daily Observer), The Color of Law forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past.