At the same time residents in Rochester are educating themselves about the complex issues of the working poor by reading and discussing Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickle and Dimed," House Speaker Steve Sviggum writes how proud he and his Republican colleagues are with their aggressive "tough-love" approach to welfare reform.
I suspect most enabled, able-bodied adults have been compassionately helped off the dole and are well into the ranks of the working poor. Just when our economy is producing the highest number of unemployed in decades, we'll give the rest of those who need help four months to prove they can work.
At least they'll still be free to spend their hard-earned paycheck at the corner Kwik Trip on Doritos, considering their car broke down and they have no way to get to a grocery with fresh produce and a special on chicken they couldn't cook anyway because their day-rate motel has no hotplate.
I don't see Republicans addressing the major roadblocks to reducing poverty, such as affordable housing, a living wage, universal health care or public transportation reaching the suburbs and those $7-an-hour jobs.
Instead, we get relaxed gun rules and increased harassment accompanied by reduced funding of those very service providers who are helping the disadvantaged from having that extra child that is costing the state so much.
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Catherine; Ashton
Rochester;
