Special report - Tax cut impact - The Detroit News Online9/29/04

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Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Max Ortiz / The Detroit News

Kelly Gnoza, 28, of Summerdale, Ala., has been on a waiting list for child care assistance since her son Bailey was born two years ago. She earns about $300 a week as a waitress and pays $100 a week in child care.

Sunday, Sept. 26
Working poor suffer under Bush tax cuts
DETROIT -- The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year. 09/26/04

Child Care
Pinch blocks rise from poverty
MOBILE, Ala. -- National Guard reservist Kimberly Shaw was called up for combat duty in February 2003 as the U.S. military prepared to invade Iraq. 09/26/04

Hunger
Meals on Wheels pares back from hot food to frozen
DETROIT -- In Detroit, shut-in seniors on the waiting list for federally subsidized hot meals face a harsh reality: They won't get help unless someone currently in the program drops out or dies. 09/26/04

Utility Help
Poor juggle bills as heat aid dries up
DETROIT -- There are more than 16,000 low-income Detroiters currently without electricity because they couldn't pay their bills. 09/26/04

Monday, Sept. 27
Home rehab cutbacks leave poor in shambles
BOSTON -- A panic-stricken Maribel Colon rushed her daughter Kyara to the emergency room after the 2-year-old kept tugging her ear and crying uncontrollably. 09/27/04

Tax Breaks
Estate-tax loss will punch hole in budget
At a time when the Bush administration is pinching pennies with federal programs for the poor, it has turned its back on $13 billion. 09/27/04

Horse owners can write off $100,000
It's a tax deduction most Americans know little about and few but the wealthy use -- the horse write-off. 09/27/04

Subsidized Apartments
Thousands wait for years to get help with rent
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- It is the arithmetic that works against Melissa Manning. 09/27/04

Crime
Highly touted crime-fighting tool axed
NEW ORLEANS -- Sylvia Hall knows firsthand just how dangerous housing projects can be. 09/27/04

Max Ortiz / The Detroit News

Cynthia Bell helps Carl Watts of Detroit learn to type at a Michigan Works! office. In 2002, Bell's agency, the Detroit Workforce Development Department, ran out of training funds in five months.

Tuesday, Sept. 28
Job training cuts shut some poor out of work
DETROIT -- Michigan has lost 241,000 more jobs than it created since the country went into recession in March 2001 -- the worst job deficit of any state in the nation. 09/28/04

Older Workers
Low-income seniors struggle for jobs
DETROIT -- Routine bills were piling so high that Marilyn Williams borrowed $30,000 against her home to help get them under control. 09/28/04

Education
College aid fails to keep pace with tuition hikes
Tommy Tseng is the first in his family to attend college. 09/28/04

Tax Benefit
Dividend tax break costs Treasury $125 billion
DETROIT -- It is a tax cut worth enough to triple the spending on low-income energy assistance through 2008. 09/28/04

About this series

To pay for federal tax cuts, many programs that served the working poor were reduced or eliminated as the deficit grew. This report shows that the amount of money millions of Americans now pay for services ranging from child care to housing is greater than the amount they saved through the tax cuts.

Sunday, Sept. 26: Hundreds of thousands of people across the nation who qualify for assistance are on waiting lists or get turned away when they apply for help with child care, meals and utility bills.

Monday, Sept. 27: A housing program that replaces dilapidated buildings has been cut, rent subsidies frozen and a public housing crime prevention program eliminated, leaving thousands of poor living in squalor, unsafe conditions or homeless.

Tuesday, Sept. 28: Even as the country lost jobs during the past two years, $600 million was cut from job-training programs designed to provide skills for the unskilled or unemployed. Federal financial aid grants have been frozen even as tuition has spiked at U.S. colleges.

Is the country better off?

Do you feel the federal tax cuts were worth the reduction in job-training programs, college financial grants and services for the working poor, such as assistance in housing, child care and food? Share your thoughts.