Vox - Paul Ryan's new antipoverty planhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2014-07-25T09:10:02-04:00http://www.vox.com/rss/stream/56972982014-07-25T09:10:02-04:002014-07-25T09:10:02-04:007 questions about block grants
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<img alt="Paul Ryan has been a major proponent of block-granting government programs." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mh8GyO92-4HWRGcEETXV9h1aV_s=/0x139:4000x3139/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/36023772/450441296.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Paul Ryan has been a major proponent of block-granting government programs. | Mark Wilson</figcaption>
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<p>Paul Ryan on Thursday released a <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/what-is-paul-ryans-plan-to-expand-the-eitc" target="_blank">plan to combat poverty</a> in the US. The plan represents a major <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/7/24/5933383/ryan-poverty-plan-democrats" target="_blank">departure from his prior budgets</a> and has sweeping policy changes on everything from regulations to education. But it does contain one familiar concept: block granting.</p>
<p>Ryan's plan contains an "Opportunity Grant" program in which 11 safety net programs would be lumped together under one funding stream. Though he says the program is not a "garden variety block grant" because of accountability measures he included, policy experts <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/24/paul-ryan-s-plan-rebooting-compassionate-conservatism.html" target="_blank">have already</a> put it under the block grant umbrella.</p>
<p>Block grants have become a contentious partisan issue. Republicans have touted block grants as a way to give more power and flexibility to states in administering federal programs. Democrats, meanwhile, have at times criticized the grants as a way for Republicans to <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/153045-top-budget-dem-fights-back-against-medicaid-block-grants" target="_blank">dismantle programs they don't like</a>.</p>
<p>Here's a rundown on the basics of this budgeting strategy.</p>
<h3>1) What is a block grant?</h3>
<p>A block grant is about big blocks of money. In a block grant, the federal government gives a big chunk of money to a state or local government to spend on a broad problem (like fighting poverty). The money is provided only with general guidelines about how it's supposed to be spent, as opposed to particular strictures.</p>
<p>The block grant is one of three types of grants governments provide to states to spend on their constituents. The other two are categorical grants and revenue sharing.</p>
<p>The three can be thought of as existing on a spectrum, as the Congressional Research Service wrote in a <a href="http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40486.pdf" target="_blank">2013 report</a>. <span>Categorical grants represent the specific end of the spectrum, where the federal government has the tightest control and the greatest number of restrictions on how states can use the aid. Revenue sharing, in which the government simply hands over a share of federal tax revenue to states and local governments, is on the other end. Broadly speaking, block grants tend to sit at the midpoint.</span></p>
<h3>2) How old are block grants?</h3>
<p>Middle-aged. The first ones went into effect in 1966. Though today Republicans tend to promote them more often, the first block grants were introduced and passed by Democrats. Those first two block grants addressed health programs and promoting public safety through the Safe Streets Program.</p>
<p>But after that, Republicans tended to lead the block grant wave. President Nixon in 1971 tried to put 129 federal programs into six block grants, but congressional Democrats rejected that plan. Still, the phenomenon of block-granting grew under presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. As described by the <a href="http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310991_A-63.pdf" target="_blank">Urban Institute</a>, block grants under Nixon and Ford tended to spend more than the programs they replaced. Under Reagan, however, block grants tended to provide less funding.</p>
<h3>3) Are there many block grants already in effect?</h3>
<p>As of late 2013, there were 22 block grant programs in effect. In contrast, there were 1,018 categorical grants, according to that CRS report. (General revenue-sharing no longer happens in the US; it only was in effect from 1972 to 1986.)</p>
<p><q aria-hidden="true" class="center">as of late 2013, there were 22 block grant programs in effect, compared to 1,018 of the stricter categorical grant programs</q></p>
<p>Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, which many people often simply call "welfare," is perhaps the best-known block-granted program in the US. Others include the Social Services Block Grant, which states can spend on a range of programs like daycare, adoption, and services to disabled people, the Surface Transportation Grant, and grants aimed specifically at helping American Indian populations in housing and community development.</p>
<p><img alt="Clinton_prwora" class="photo" src="http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/4807938/Clinton_prwora.png"></p>
<p class="caption">Bill Clinton signing welfare reform into effect in 1996. (Social Security Administration)</p>
<h3><span>4) Are there any funny block-grant-themed coffee mugs out there?</span></h3>
<p>That depends on what you consider funny. If you're into obscure academic journals and high-level political discourse, you're in luck. Amazon at one point sold a <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bakers-First-Law-Federal-Geometry/dp/9800401229" target="_blank">coffee mug</a> emblazoned with Baker's First Law of Federal Geometry: "A block grant is a solid mass of money surrounded on all sides by governors." That law was coined by <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1982/01/12/01160095.h01.html" target="_blank">Rutgers political scientist Ross Baker</a> in a 1981 issue of American Demographics magazine.</p>
<h3>5) That's not funny.</h3>
<p>If you care about state and local control over federal funds, it is.</p>
<h3><span>6) What do people like about block grants?</span></h3>
<p><span></span><span>Proponents of block grants often tout flexibility as a virtue. In Ryan's poverty plan, for example, states can adjust how they use their lump sum of money on housing programs to make sure their spending does not disrupt the housing market.</span></p>
<p>In that sense, proponents say, a state can better administer aid to constituents, rather than a distant federal bureaucracy. At the same time, they argue, block grants also make state officials more accountable to their constituents.</p>
<p><q aria-hidden="true" class="center">proponents argue block grants help states come up with innovative solutions</q></p>
<p>There's also the argument that with flexible grants, states can better create innovative solutions than the federal government can.</p>
<p><span>Some of the policy changes that can come alongside block grants can make also make aid recipients more accountable themselves. In Ryan's poverty plan, recipients will have to create a "life plan" that outlines goals they want to achieve, as well as consequences if they do not achieve those goals.</span></p>
<p>In that sense, block grant proponents also say it eliminates waste — not only does it make spending more efficient, but it also allows state governments to get rid of overlapping programs.</p>
<p>Often, block grant proposals have also been ways of cutting government spending. Republicans have, for example, put forward Medicaid block granting proposals that would cut funding drastically. Still, this isn't common of every block granting proposal — Paul Ryan's new anti-poverty plan would simply give states their current level of funding, but in one lump sum.</p>
<h3>7) What are the arguments against block grants?</h3>
<p>The fact that block grants have been proposed as ways of cutting spending really worries opponents. Those people believe block grants are a way to indirectly cut funding to programs — often those that the poorest Americans need the most, like SNAP.</p>
<p><q aria-hidden="true" class="right">opponents say block grants make it harder to respond to economic and demographic changes</q></p>
<p>Relatedly, block grants make it harder to respond to economic changes. While SNAP automatically expands as people need it, block grant funding is set by Congress. For example, during and after the Great Recession, the number of SNAP recipients and the amount of dollars spent on that non-block-granted program soared, as needs for food assistance grew. But TANF caseloads <a style="line-height: 1.5;" href="http://www.cbpp.org/files/11-19-13tanf/US.pdf" target="_blank">remained relatively flat</a>, as the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out.</p>
<p>Likewise, as eligible populations grow, even regardless of economic changes, it can also increase the need for programs like TANF and SNAP. While entitlements adjust to these shifts, block granted programs do not.</p>
<p><span>In addition, opponents say administering programs via block grant can make it harder to assess their effectiveness. If each state spends money and administers programs differently, it means there is no uniform data to understand the exact effects of these programs. And if programs are lumped together, as they are in Ryan's poverty plan, that could make for even more difficult evaluation.</span></p>
<p>Finally, opponents say that block-granted programs can ironically end up less flexible, because of <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/310991.html" target="_blank">"creeping categorization."</a> This is when the government slowly adds more restrictions to programs that have been block-granted or diverts funds to particular purposes.</p>
<h4>Further reading</h4>
<ul>
<li> <span>Oren Cass, domestic policy director of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, gives his perspective on the Opportunity Grant proposal at </span><a style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/383613/guest-post-oren-cass-paul-ryan-and-transformation-anti-poverty-policy-oren-cass" target="_blank">National Review</a><span>.</span> </li>
<li> <span>The Congressional Research Service in 2013 published a </span><a style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40486.pdf" target="_blank">comprehensive breakdown</a><span> of block grants' benefits and consequences.</span> </li>
<li><span>Vox's Sarah Kliff has written an <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/4/5/5574270/republicans-stealthy-plan-to-cut-medicaid-explained" target="_blank">excellent explainer</a> on Republican efforts to block-grant Medicaid.</span></li>
<li><span>Paul Ryan's <a href="http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/expanding_opportunity_in_america.pdf">2014 plan</a> to reduce poverty aims to put several programs for needy Americans into one block grant.</span></li>
<li><span>The Urban Institute <a href="http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310991_A-63.pdf" target="_blank">in 2004</a> wrote a detailed rundown of the history and debate over block grants.</span></li>
</ul>
https://www.vox.com/2014/7/25/5930699/block-grants-explainedDanielle Kurtzleben2014-07-24T12:40:02-04:002014-07-24T12:40:02-04:00Democrats should welcome Paul Ryan's poverty plan
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<figcaption>Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call</figcaption>
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<p>The most important idea in <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/what-is-paul-ryans-plan-to-expand-the-eitc">Paul Ryan's poverty plan</a> reverses the most important idea in Paul Ryan's budgets.</p>
<p>Those budgets were built atop a series of promises — no new taxes, sharp deficit reduction, no near-term changes to Medicare or Social Security, and no more defense cuts — that combined to make deep cuts to spending on programs for the poor the cornerstone of Republican fiscal policy. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculated that fully <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=4122">two-thirds</a> of Ryan's savings came from cuts to those programs. So that was the GOP's basic poverty plan: cut spending on programs for the poor.</p>
<p><q aria-hidden="true" class="right">Paul Ryan's poverty plan reverses Paul Ryan's budgets</q></p>
<p>Paul Ryan's new poverty plan is, in this respect, a sharp break with his budgets. On page 14, Ryan says that "it is important to note that this is not a budget-cutting exercise — this is a reform proposal." He is talking, specifically, about his plan to divert federal funding for food and housing assistance into "<a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/what-is-paul-ryans-opportunity-grant-program">Opportunity Grants</a>," but it's true across the board: in this plan, Ryan severs his enthusiasm for reforming government programs from his plans to cut spending.</p>
<p>In short, Paul Ryan's poverty plan appears to be an attempt to change the Republican Party's view — a view driven, in large part, by Paul Ryan and his budgets — of what to do with programs for the poor. In Paul Ryan's budgets, those programs were slashed to make way for other budgetary goals. In this plan, they're reformed in order to achieve the goal of reducing poverty.</p>
<p>The change is signaled with a quote from Bob Woodson, president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, who has been an influential advisor to Ryan on poverty. "I think it is a false dichotomy to assume that if you care for the poor, you spend more, if you do not, you spend less," Woodson says. "I think what we must do is begin to talk about how do we invest more wisely with the purpose where we measure success of the poor by how many people are helped, as opposed to how many people are served."</p>
<h3>Ryan's poverty plan vs. Ryan's budgets</h3>
<p><img alt="477001097" class="photo" src="http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4806968/477001097.jpg"></p>
<p class="caption">Remember Paul Ryan’s budget? The one that just passed a few months ago? (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)</p>
<p><span>Where Ryan's budget used block grants as a way to cap and then cut spending on everything from Medicaid to food stamps, Ryan's poverty plan uses block grants as a way to consolidate programs and give states more flexibility over their use. And where Ryan's budgets contained deep (though vague) cuts to the part of the budget that included programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, his poverty plan envisions a spending-neutral effort to increase the EITC by cutting other programs (for more on that proposal, see Vox's </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/what-is-paul-ryans-plan-to-expand-the-eitc">card</a><span>).</span></p>
<p>This is a pivot Ryan previewed in a <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/paul-ryans-inner-city-education">conversation</a> with Buzzfeed's McKay Coppins. "I've got two roles," he says. "I'm chairman of the House Budget Committee representing my conference ... and I'm a House member representing Wisconsin doing my own thing. I can't speak for everybody and put my stuff in their budget. My work on poverty is a separate thing."</p>
<p><q aria-hidden="true" class="center"><span>This was a bit like hearing the Kool-Aid Man say that he only ever drank Kool-Aid for the money</span></q></p>
<p>This was a bit like hearing the Kool-Aid Man say that he only ever drank Kool-Aid for the money, and in truth, he thinks kids should drink more tap water, instead. But a<span>s jarring as it is to hear and see Ryan distancing himself from the budgets that launched him as a national figure, t</span><span>his is a return to Ryan's roots. Though he's made his name as the GOP's chief crusader against deficits, that's always been an awkward fit with Ryan's actual record, which included a series of votes that massively increased the deficit in order to wrench policy in a more conservative direction.</span></p>
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<p><span>He voted for George W. Bush's tax cuts, as well as the war in Iraq and the unfunded Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. Prior to Barack Obama's presidency, Ryan was best known for</span><span> </span><a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.01776:">the Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act of 2005</a><span>, a plan to privatize Social Security that the program's actuaries calculated would require $2.4 trillion in additional costs over the first 10 years. The Bush administration ultimately </span><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110496995612018199,00.html">dismissed</a><span> it as "irresponsible."</span></p>
<p>Even the savings in Ryan's budgets were a bit bizarre: Ryan emphasized his reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and the tax code, but the budget's largest savings came from massive, unspecified cuts to everything that wasn't Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security: Ryan envisioned literally everything else the government did falling from 12.5 percent of GDP to 3.75 percent of GDP by 2050. It was clear from the outset that the reforms were Ryan's focus and the savings were merely a spreadsheet exercise — and not a very convincing one.</p>
<h3>Ryan the reformer</h3>
<p><img src="http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4806984/159826106.jpg" class="photo" alt="159826106"></p>
<p class="caption">Ryan cares less about the budget than about the structure of the programs within it. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)</p>
<p><span>Ryan is, at heart, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/11/paul-ryan-isnt-a-deficit-hawk-hes-a-conservative-reformer/">more interested in reforming government programs</a><span> than in simply cutting them. When deficits exploded after the financial crisis he used deficit-reducing budgets as the vehicle for far-reaching reforms. Now that deficits are lower and poverty is more salient, he's using poverty as a vehicle for far-reaching reforms. The constant thread in Ryan's career isn't his concern for budgets but his efforts to overhaul the safety net.</span></p>
<p><q aria-hidden="true" class="center"><span>The constant thread in Ryan's career isn't his concern for budgets but his efforts to overhaul the safety net.</span></q></p>
<p>But Ryan has a quality most reformers don't: he is exceptionally good at building consensus within the Republican Party. And that's what makes his poverty plan so important: Ryan is ratifying a shift in the GOP's focus away from the kind of policies contained in his budgets and towards the kind of policies contained in his poverty plan (and that have also been offered by Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Mike Lee, and others). This is a conversation that should, in theory, offer much more opportunity for common ground with Democrats.</p>
<p>This plan, for instance, marks an important point of agreement between Ryan and the Obama administration: their proposals for expanding the EITC are almost identical — where, previously, the Obama administration wanted to expand the EITC and Ryan wanted to cut it. Their disagreement now is about<span> how to pay for expanding the EITC. That's a gap that should, under normal political circumstances, be bridgeable. </span></p>
<p><span>Similarly, Ryan's "Opportunity Grants", though missing key details, might have merit if thoughtfully constructed: few think the government's dizzying array of poverty programs are perfectly structured, and in an age where Washington is deeply gridlocked, handing a set of pilot states more flexibility to experiment more rapidly makes sense. The hard questions here are how to manage the growth of the grants when the economy turns down, how to define the kinds of limits and evaluations that need to be followed (i.e., can a governor force grant recipients to submit to a weekly drug test and home inspection?), and whether Ryan is really committed to the </span><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/paul-ryans-paternalistic-poverty-plan.html">intensely paternalistic life plan model</a><span>. </span></p>
<p><span>Similarly, Ryan's </span><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/whats-paul-ryans-plan-to-cut-back-on-mass-incarceration">ideas on incarceration</a><span> are already shared by many on the left, and his plan should be a boost to legislation like the Cory Booker-Rand Paul bill.</span></p>
<p>There are other ideas Ryan proposes that have little chance of attracting Democratic support. As my colleague Matthew Yglesias observes, his <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/ryan-regulation-plan">regulatory agenda</a> cloaks a plan that would make new environmental and financial regulations nearly impossible in the language of poverty prevention. His plan to <a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/whats-paul-ryans-plan-for-education">block grant Head Start spending</a> will, similarly, find little support on the Democratic side of the aisle.</p>
<p><q aria-hidden="true" class="right"><span> Ryan is refocusing on reducing poverty by making the government's anti-poverty programs work better</span></q></p>
<p>There's much more in Ryan's plan, of course, and some of it will, upon closer scrutiny, anger liberals, and perhaps even conservatives. Some ideas will fail even the most cursory technical analysis. Ryan is careful to say, at the outset, that "this paper is not meant to serve as the final word, but to start a conversation all across the country." The question is whether he means it: does he intend to work with Democrats — even compromise with them — to make progress on these issues? Or is this plan a final offer disguised as a first draft?</p>
<p>Democrats face the same challenge, of course. There will be charges of hypocrisy against Ryan's plan, and they're merited: his poverty plan and his budget cannot coexist in the same universe at the same time. Conservatives who spent the last few years cheering Ryan's budget and are now cheering his poverty policies need to ask themselves some hard questions.</p>
<p>But more important than the contradictions in Ryan's plans is their progression: Ryan is refocusing himself and, perhaps, the Republican Party on reducing poverty by making the government's anti-poverty programs work better: that's a project that's both more important for the country and more amenable to compromise. Democrats should welcome it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.vox.com/cards/paul-ryan-poverty/what-is-paul-ryans-plan-to-expand-the-eitc"><i>Read Vox's full guide to Ryan's poverty policies here.</i></a></p>
https://www.vox.com/2014/7/24/5933383/ryan-poverty-plan-democratsEzra Klein2014-07-24T10:21:32-04:002014-07-24T10:21:32-04:00Here's Paul Ryan's new antipoverty plan
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<figcaption>Bill Clark, CQ-Roll Call Group</figcaption>
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<p>This morning, House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan unveiled his new plan to combat poverty and expand opportunity in the US. You can r<span>ead the full plan, which Ryan calls a discussion draft, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/expanding_opportunity_in_america.pdf">here</a><span>. And you can watch video of Ryan discussing the plan at the American Enterprise Institute below:</span></p>
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https://www.vox.com/2014/7/24/5933221/heres-paul-ryans-new-antipoverty-planAndrew Prokop