In addition to the crisis meeting of euro-zone leaders in Brussels that resulted in the nearly $1 trillion E.U.-International Monetary Fund safety net, pressure had been building on Mr. Zapatero from other quarters.
The fast-track World Bank money would be available immediately, bypassing the normal project vetting procedures, and would help fund safety net support for the hungry, in the form of school feeding programmes or food-for-work schemes.
In general, the Foundation was no longer funding "safety net" programs like IHOS, but had moved toward broader, systemic, collaborative efforts to address the root causes of poor health in vulnerable populations.
With jobs paying too little for families to meet their basic needs, a growing number of working families must rely on publicly funded safety net programs to make ends meet.
Don't equate a publicly funded safety net with government provision of services (a single public payer may be the cheapest way to provide basic health care, but that does not have to mean every nurse needs to be a government employee).
But advocates say the move could hinder their agencies' ability to expand existing services by pulling away a funding safety net, deterring agencies that plan to fight the ban from pursuing other initiatives and derailing years of advancement in HIV/AIDS research and treatment.
Here's how The New York Times made the connection, reporting that more older Americans are working longer because, among other reasons, "many corporations have stopped providing health care to retirees... forcing them to work till Medicare is available". Those businesses increased their profits by pushing employees into the publicly funded safety net.
In fact, last year, over my strong objections, the Legislature approved the largest tax hikes in the state's history in order to fund "safety-net" and other social programs preferred by legislative Democrats.
In this context, jails have become the poorly suited service providers of last resort for people who fall through publicly funded safety nets.
Planned Parenthood health centers make up only 10percentt of publicly funded safety-net providers, but they serve 36percentt of the clients seeking contraceptive services.
And while it will not specifically fund a safety net for the Golden Gate Bridge, it makes possible the application for federal funds that can be directed to the project over the next two years.
