Fighting Bush's welfare proposal. (Race and Recession).

With his proposal in February, Bush pushed the welfare reauthorization debate even further to the right--calling for tougher work requirements, no relief for immigrants, and millions to promote marriage among single parents.

The draconian new plan drew a swift response from welfare activists in March during a daylong effort to apply grassroots pressure in D.C. More than 2,000 welfare recipients and supporters descended upon the Capitol to urge Congress to pass legislation that will reduce poverty, not public assistance caseloads, and to express their outrage over both the Bush proposal and a similar one from the Democratic Leadership Council.

"The Bush welfare reauthorization proposal runs counter to everything we have learned in the past five years about what helps poor families survive," said Deepak Bhargava, director of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income. "The plan calls for a massive increase in the number of people required to work, an unrealistic proposal in the best of economic times but truly bizarre in the middle of a recession. It represents a huge step backwards."

Despite Bush's rhetoric of increasing educational opportunities and state flexibility, the Administration's proposal imposes a massive expansion of work requirements. It would demand that 70 percent of welfare recipients hold jobs by 2007, up from the current 30 percent. There is no way states could meet that demand without implementing workfare and pushing welfare recipients into more low-wage, dead-end jobs without means to lift them out of poverty.

The proposal would also increase the required workweek for recipients from 30 hours to 40. On top of that, the proposal limits states' ability to allow education to count as a work activity.

Meanwhile, there's no mention about restoring Medicaid or cash assistance to immigrants whose benefits were slashed during 1996 welfare reform. Instead, Bush's proposal includes up to $300 million for marriage promotion schemes, and no new funding for income support, childcare, and transportation.

With their mobilization, welfare activists showed that poor people weren't going to let Bush's proposal go unchallenged.

Highlights of the day of action included an accountability session, a rally, and two office takeovers. The accountability session resulted in the chairman of the influential Senate Finance Committee publicly taking a stand against marriage promotion, stating that marriage is a "personal decision."

Flexing their newfound political muscle, the National Campaign for Jobs and Income bused over 400 advocates to flood the offices of the Democratic Leadership Council and confront DLC President Bruce Reed on their welfare proposal, which paralleled Bush's in its harsh emphasis on work.

Another thousand people took over the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank leading the fight for marriage promotion. With no security at hand, the group easily flooded the building and began the hunt for Heritage's leading welfare "expert" Robert Rector. Caught while coming off the elevator, many equated Rector's initial response to a "deer staring into headlights." Rector agreed to the delegation's demands that he spend two days living the life of a low-income family, though he nervously turned down an old pair of sneakers during the request to walk in poor people's shoes.

Menachem Krajcer directs the Welfare Advocacy Research Project (WARP) at the Applied Research Center.