Why We've Been Losing the War on Poverty Since Lyndon Baines Johnson Israel Ortega - VOXXI
go to original January 8, 2014

In this clip from his Jan. 8, 1964 State of the Union address, President Lyndon B. Johnson declares an "unconditional war on poverty in America" and proposes an unprecedented federal initiative to address poverty through education, job-training and community programs. (MCamericanpresident)

Forty years ago, Lyndon B. Johnson defiantly declared war. No, it wasn’t against communism and communist forces in Vietnam. Instead the tall lanky Texan declared war on poverty. Among his prepared remarks to a joint Congress, LBJ confidently said: “…Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it, and above all to prevent it.”

A cursory study of the 36th President of the United States reveals a young teacher exposed to some of the deepest levels of poverty and destitution along the US-Mexico border, which helps explain why he took on such an honorable and ambitious goal when he became the country’s chief executive.

Unfortunately, after four decades and billions upon billions of dollars in federal poverty programs, the number of Americans living in poverty has actually increased. According to the latest from the Census Bureau, the number of Americans living in poverty stands at around 50 million. While the government officially defines the level of poverty as being around $11,500 for an individual, for a family of four that number is around $23,550.

For Hispanics, these numbers are even more sobering. According to a recent Washington Post article, Hispanics now make up the largest group of children living in poverty: the first time in U.S. history that poor white kids have been outnumbered by poor children of another race or ethnicity.

And with the number of Hispanics in the United States expected to increase in the years and decades to come, these numbers reveal a problem symptomatic of not just one ethnic group, but of the entire collective state.

And while in the four decades since LBJ declared war on poverty we have seen a dizzying array of technological advances that few could have predicted, a time traveler would hardly blink an eye when hearing federal policy prescriptions on how best to reduce poverty. The arguments can be boiled down this way: in order to reduce poverty, increase the role and budget of the federal government.

With the exception of the landmark of 1996 Welfare Reform Act, Congress and subsequent Presidents have adopted a similar mantra, desperately hoping to unfurrow a banner reading: “Mission Accomplished” on the War on Poverty, but with no success.

Which is why if there is ever a time to hear dissenting voices on how to effectively reduce poverty, now would be as good a time as ever.

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