Haley Muller's Post-

The idea of the book so far is to explain to us just how bad poverty truly is. It is educating us of the many aspects of poverty and who it effects. In this book there have been multiple personal experiences that have provided us with real examples that are truly eye opening. The book also puts some focus on politicians that may be involved in poverty and their attempts to help it or maybe even cause it. Policies that were created by politicians are discussion such as Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, etc. 

All of the passages have struck me in a different way. One that stood out to me was on page 50. It was about a woman named Megan that was both a wife and mother of 4. Just after their family had been kicked off Medicaid for just a $1 raise to her husbands salary, she suffered a ruptured appendix. After all said and done they could not afford the medical bills. They had been kicked off all the other programs they had qualified for and had no money; they filed for bankruptcy. This hits home because my father got into a terrible motorcycle accident, it left our family with medical bills that exceeded $200,000 because of all of the surgeries needed and time spent in the hospital wasn't exactly cheap either. My parents had to declare bankruptcy because they could not afford to keep paying for all the medical bills. 

The one passage that stuck out to me most was on page 60. It was about a 14 year old high school girl. Her father had lost his job and she was starving. The goal was for her and her father to attain a higher education so that they could become more than who they were at that time. To me this is very sad. Especially when I hear stories about a young child and just one parent. I wonder, where is the other parent? It is sad enough to be in such a heart breaking situation, but to not have both parents must be even harder on the child. It is amazing how one situation is so different from the next. They are all very sad to hear.

U.S Government has put in policies such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that has provided those who are at the poverty level with food essentially helping the safety net. This is so that people who are low-income can eat. Obama was also seen as the president that helped make this happen. Medicaid policies were and still are available to those who are at extreme low-income levels as well. With every new political office, I believe, comes policies (and even changes in policies) that directly effect the part of our population that is at the poverty level. One politician may be very willing to help out those in need, while  another may change the requirements of those policies so that less people qualify.