“People living in poverty are not very experienced at navigating the real world,” Husted said. “I remember talking to one young lady who said, ‘I don’t really know how money works at a grocery store’ because she grew up and has lived all of her adult life using SNAP cards to buy groceries. You literally have to teach people how to budget, how to do all these things.”
That’s fairly insensitive, right? I grew up poor in a Bronx, NY housing project and did a decent job navigating the real world. My family was on food stamps for a while, but I knew how money worked (and that we didn’t have nearly enough).
So, yeah, in a vacuum, that’s out of touch.
But we don’t live in a vacuum. We live in a time where context matters far less than a “gotcha” quote that riles up the base, whether it be from the left or right.
Husted made his remarks on the Defending Ideas podcast by the conservative Sutherland Institute. Husted’s proposed Upward Mobility Act would, in short, help people navigate their way out of poverty. The context matters because Husted primarily discussed how people on public assistance can lose benefits if they earn too much money,
Husted envisions a five-state pilot program that will gradually wean people “off government benefits as they earn more.” He also said, “Understand, people living in poverty, it’s not an easy thing. If you’re in poverty, that means you don’t have a (deposit) for an apartment necessarily, you don’t have a car, you don’t have some of the essentials that you need. Give them time to build some savings … and then you can gradually reduce benefits over time.”
Unless you watch the entire podcast, you wouldn’t know that’s what Husted said. Instead, he got himself into difficulty by using clumsy phrasing.
People in poverty aren’t experienced in the real world? They sure are, just in ways those with resources often don’t consider. They’re experienced at using low-cost items to make filling meals. Parents in poverty have too much experience skipping a meal so their children can eat.
But in other ways, the poor aren’t experienced simply due to their circumstances (which is why he should have stopped at ‘poverty. It’s not an easy thing.’). One study noted that poverty wears people down, and I saw that growing up.
The folks in my neighborhood didn’t have much experience with checking accounts because they couldn’t afford the minimum deposit to open one. They had no idea how to balance a checkbook because they cashed their checks at payday lenders, as I did. They didn’t realize that a credit card came with such high interest that it might take decades to pay it off.
So his remarks aren’t entirely untrue. When I covered social services for this newspaper years ago, Montgomery (and other) counties held budgeting classes for the poor because it’s tough to stretch a dollar when you have few of them. Today, the Dayton Metro Library, FitMoney, and the Miami Valley Urban League offer financial literacy and budgeting courses.
It’s reasonable to debate the details of Husted’s bill. Policy Matters Ohio opposes it, concerned that a lack of oversight could eventually “defund benefits programs.” The Ohio Manufacturers Association is among those who support it.
Were Husted’s remarks imprudent? You bet. It’s the type of unforced error that will follow him through what will be a tough campaign against former Sen. Sherrod Brown. Expect to see clips with, “People living in poverty are just not very experienced at navigating the real world.”
Am I bent out of shape about what Husted said? No, for two reasons.
First, I watched the entire video and understood what he was trying to convey, despite the bumbling answer.
Secondly, I’ve been there.
You can watch the Husted discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM2T0Jo6p4o
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.
