Paul Ryan on Wednesday
presented a plan
for ameliorating poverty
at the American Enterprise Institute
that despite repudiating
the modern "welfare state"
on the whole
actually shows
he is approaching the subject
from a slightly altered angle
than times he has brought up
the subject before.
He proposes expanding
the Earned Income Tax Credit
for low-income and childless workers
from $503
to $1,005.
Don't get him wrong
Gerald Ford created the EITC
and Reagan and Bush
and Bush Junior expanded it
so of course Republicans
in Congress today
are against it
because they have moved
even further to the right
and a helpful first step
might be to raise
our country's minimum wage
for the first time
in five years
from $7.25
to something that would help
taxpayers keep pace
with inflation
(which the progressive think tank
Center for Economic
and Policy Research
estimates to be about
six billion dollars)
and maybe such an increase
would increase feelings of morale
and decrease feelings of desperation
amongst the working poor
and they could help the economy
and their families
and their local communities
(all pillars of conservative rhetoric
of the past)
and "making ends meet"
by strangling oneself
just a little bit
and a little bit more
would become a relic
of a world less civilized
and more lopsided
than present.
but hey
it's a start.
This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.
