Hearing of the House Budget Committee - Near-Term Economic Outlook

Statement

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REP. GWEN MOORE (D-WI): Thank you so much.

Thank you for your generosity for being here today.

We find ourselves in a conundrum here, because I think everybody appreciates the notion that we need to target our assistance to get down to the low-income families and to help them. I guess my question is, you know, what vehicles -- the vehicles that have been proposed don't really seem to be able to accomplish or achieve that.

We have a 5.2 percent national unemployment rate. But when you disaggregate those numbers in my district, those people, for example, who are not receiving unemployment compensation insurance but who have just given up looking for a job for the longest period of time, I find that 17 percent, over three times the national average, 17 percent of white males in my district are unemployed. Twenty-three percent of Hispanics in my district are unemployed. And 47 percent of African- American men in my district are unemployed; 28,000 African-Americans in my district.

We have the highest incarceration rate in the nation or under some sort of Department of Corrections supervision. And we really need to help them. They may not be heads of households because they don't have jobs. So food stamps are not going to help them. The unemployment compensation insurance will help some of them, but some of them have been unemployed for so long that even if we look back six months, that may not help them. The low-income heating program, that's a great vehicle. And if we give it to state and local governments, the only suggestions that have been made is that we help them underwrite their Medicaid program.

Can you tell me how we get this money -- and I haven't even talked about the women who are on welfare and the time limits, and the clock may hit them. Can you suggest for me some sort of vehicle to get the truly poor and the truly needy folks that I have described some of this assistance?

MR. BERNANKE: Congresswoman, you've put your finger on an important problem. You've listed most of the vehicles that people could think about. If you want to get the money out quickly, you know, the easiest way is to go through the tax system or one of the existing programs. I don't have a good suggestion for you.

REP. MOORE: But these are not tax filers. But don't you agree that it would be really bang for the buck if we could figure out how to get assistance to these people? I mean, there are -- it's not like we don't have lists of these people who have in the past received general assistance through the county.

It's not like we don't know who these 28,000, for example, in my community, men are who are on probation, living with their mamas, living with their sisters, living with a live-in girlfriend. It's not like -- and living off them. So it's not like we don't know who they are. But I just want to hear that it would be worth the effort to try to figure out a vehicle to help these folks in terms of the impact of an economic stimulus.

MR. BERNANKE: I do want to draw a distinction, which is that we need to address these problems as part of long-run policy. I mean, obviously poverty is a problem. And there's a whole range of things that could be done and should be done to try to address it. And we're not going to fix that, you know, with a check, with one check. So we clearly want to make that part of our long-term policy issue, policy priorities.

With respect to current fiscal stimulus, as I said, the evidence does suggest -- and I've said it a number of times -- that lower- and moderate-income people are more likely to spend the money in the near term. And so, from the fiscal stimulus point of view, there is some benefit to finding ways to provide money to people in that category.

Timeliness, though, is an issue, and we need to find ways to do it, you know, that will not take us, you know, well into 2009.

REP. MOORE: Thank you.

And thank you, Mr. Chair.

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