Poverty

April 12, 2023

The (G.W.) Bush Whisperer

’Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave, ’Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore ’Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave Oh! Hard times come again no more. Continue Reading...

March 15, 2023

Conservative Compassion Fatigue

Part 3 of my series on poverty and the welfare state ended with a brief look at two community associations in South Dallas. As the Washington welfare-reform impasse in 1995 and 1996 dragged on, I traveled the country learning and speechifying. Continue Reading...

February 15, 2023

Washington Fiddles, Texas Burns

While Washingtonians in 1995 fought welfare battles on Capitol Hill, a struggle initially below press radar began in San Antonio. The July 5 afternoon temperature was 90 degrees as James Heurich, with sleeves rolled up and tie loosened, sat at his scarred desk in the office of a Christian anti-addiction program, Teen Challenge of South Texas. Continue Reading...

January 03, 2023

The 1990s Republican Revolution Begins

’Tis the song, the sigh of the weary, Hard Times, hard times, come again no more. Many days you have lingered around my cabin door; Oh! Hard times come again no more. Continue Reading...

December 06, 2022

My $50,000-per-Person Poverty Dinner

“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Continue Reading...

September 16, 2022

Free Enterprise Is Saving African Lives

For years, Africa has dominated the podium in the “bad healthcare” Olympics. For reference, the average cost for an established patient and Medicare recipient to make one visit to a family practice in Pennsylvania (where I live) is approximately $88—the cost of less than a week’s worth of groceries. Continue Reading...

August 05, 2022

Expanding the welfare state in Africa is a threat, not a help

While bilateral and multilateral talks are hitting impasses around much of the globe, “Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want” is a continental agreement that breaks the mold. For all its lofty ambitions, this blueprint aiming at “transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future” is paradoxically both a celebration of and a threat to the family. Continue Reading...