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 ...