Obama's Office of Urban Policy
At face value alone, this is a welcome and long overdue gesture. Consider the array of means-tested programs and policies that currently have bearing upon the circumstances of low-income households in America's cities:
Grover Norquist's of the world notwithstanding, none of these social "safety nets" are inherently flawed. They each do more good than harm, to varying degrees and with varying effects, no doubt, but the net effect is a positive one. There is also of course room for improvement, from one program to the next, from one policy to the next. But now there appears to be an opportunity to put forth a more comprehensive urban policy agenda that not only seeks to improve each element of urban policy, but also seeks to make the interaction of the parts work more efficiently to create a better whole.
Whether it is even feasible to coordinate such a diversity of programs and policies in a meaningful and beneficial way remains to be seen, but I do know that it has been over three decades since we've seen a president with any inclination to create an opportunity for a comprehensive urban policy agenda. Reagan sure didn't do so. Bush I and II sure didn't either. And Clinton's urban policy was, at best, haphazard and riven with compromise. So there is an opportunity here, under an Obama administration, for much greater cohesion and efficiency with respect to urban policy than anything we have seen in more than a generation.
There is also an opportunity here to once and for all dissociate the Democratic party from the worn-out but still lingering stereotypes regarding "welfare" and racially hued "redistributionist" policies. We all saw that ugly head rear itself once again this time around. But that's another topic for another day.
- Housing assistance, the Community Development Block Grant, and numerous other urban programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- TANF (formerly AFDC, aka "welfare"), Medicaid, SCHIP, and other related programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka food stamps) is administered by U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Supplemental Security Income is administered by the Social Security Administration.
- The Earned Income Tax Credit is administered by the Internal Revenue Service.
Grover Norquist's of the world notwithstanding, none of these social "safety nets" are inherently flawed. They each do more good than harm, to varying degrees and with varying effects, no doubt, but the net effect is a positive one. There is also of course room for improvement, from one program to the next, from one policy to the next. But now there appears to be an opportunity to put forth a more comprehensive urban policy agenda that not only seeks to improve each element of urban policy, but also seeks to make the interaction of the parts work more efficiently to create a better whole.
Whether it is even feasible to coordinate such a diversity of programs and policies in a meaningful and beneficial way remains to be seen, but I do know that it has been over three decades since we've seen a president with any inclination to create an opportunity for a comprehensive urban policy agenda. Reagan sure didn't do so. Bush I and II sure didn't either. And Clinton's urban policy was, at best, haphazard and riven with compromise. So there is an opportunity here, under an Obama administration, for much greater cohesion and efficiency with respect to urban policy than anything we have seen in more than a generation.
There is also an opportunity here to once and for all dissociate the Democratic party from the worn-out but still lingering stereotypes regarding "welfare" and racially hued "redistributionist" policies. We all saw that ugly head rear itself once again this time around. But that's another topic for another day.
