This is another reading-that-isn’t-an-assignment. I mentioned it in the first class session, and a few people were really interested in reading it. You’re welcome to write a reading response to it, of course!
The New York Times wrote about the shameful status of state and federal government aid.
As millions of people seek government aid, many for the first time, they are finding it dispensed American style: through a jumble of disconnected programs that reach some and reject others, often for reasons of geography or chance rather than differences in need.
It’s becoming clear that “transparency in government” needs to mean more than simply keeping track of how senators and representatives vote. We need real transparency, a system that will allow everyone who is currently entitled to aid to receive that aid without humiliation and exhausting fights with bureaucracy.