Even as congressional Republicans mobilize for a new drive to retrench federal anti-poverty efforts, whites without a college degree—the cornerstone of the modern GOP electoral coalition—have emerged as principal beneficiaries of those programs, according to a study released Thursday morning.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal policy-analysis group, found that in both percentage terms and absolute numbers, federal programs reduced poverty among working-age whites without a college degree more than they did among non-college-educated Hispanics, African Americans, or members of other races, and far more than they did among college-educated adults of any race. The number of these working-age whites, in fact, exceeded the combined number of non-college-educated blacks, Hispanics, and members of other races that made such gains.
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These findings, based on 2014 Census Bureau data, echo other studies showing that blue-collar whites have been among the principal beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act. Both results underscore the challenge Republicans face reconciling their ideological determination to shrink the federal government with the practical needs of their increasingly working-class coalition.
Donald Trump, for instance, won about two-thirds of whites without a college degree—the most for any Republican since Ronald Reagan in his 1984 landslide—and they provided almost exactly half of his total votes, even though they represented only about one-third of the electorate, according to media exit polls. Similarly, 152 House Republicans, out of 241 total, represent heavily blue-collar districts where the white population exceeds the national average and the portion of those whites with at least a four-year degree lags below the national average. The GOP’s overwhelming advantage in those working-class districts underpins their House majority.
Using results from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, with supplemental data from an Urban Institute analysis of transfer payments, the new CBPP study challenges the frequent assumption that government anti-poverty programs primarily benefit minority communities. Instead, by examining the experience of working-age adults ages 18 to 64, the study presents evidence that education levels, not race, are the key dividing line in the programs’ reach.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/gop-base-poverty-snap-social-security/516861/Don't know enough about this to even begin to attempt to comment. Throwing it to the more knowledgeable.
