Debt deal leaves Americans living in rural & low-income communities behind

Cuts to discretionary spending will have a profound impact on low-income and minority communities, according to Melissa Boteach & Desmond Brown of Center for American Progress. Botech and Brown write on 8/8/2011 that these cuts will squeeze funding for employment programs, housing assistance, heating and cooling assistance to low-income seniors, and child care services that allow mothers to enter the workforce. The deal lacked any provision to continue federal jobless benefits for the unemployed who were laid off after July 1. Unemployment is nearly twice that rate for African-Americans.

The next round of cuts will disproportionately hurt communities of color, who comprise 56 percent of the Medicaid population. Data from 2008 shows that 44 percent and 23 percent of public housing recipients are African American and Hispanic, respectively, and more than 40 percent of Women, Infants and Children program recipients are Latino.

The deficit deal is also likely to negatively affect Americans living in rural communities. In 2009, 17 percent of Americans living in rural areas lived in poverty, topping the poverty rate in metro areas by nearly 3 percentage points, writes Katie Wright of Center for American Progress. In the South, where rural poverty is concentrated among communities of color, more than one in five people in rural areas were living below the poverty line. Seniors and children in rural areas struggle the most. Nearly half of all children in rural areas live in households with incomes of less than twice the poverty level. And more than 40 percent of seniors in rural areas struggle to get by on low incomes compared to 32 percent of seniors in metro areas. A staggering 76 percent of rural part-time workers lack access to paid sick days, as compared to 60 percent of all part-time workers.