In 2014
the Half in Ten campaign released the “The War on Poverty: Then and Now” report
that entails the progress we've made as a country with our ongoing mission to
save millions of citizens from poverty and what we've done to make those changes powerful and lasting.
Bottom
line: the United States has not failed; the war on poverty is still being
fought and battles are being won.
How?
Through policy reforms that resulted in safety net programs which aided our
success: Medicare, Medicare, Head Start, Pell Grants, nutrition assistance and
expansions to Social Security. Without these programs it is expected that our
poverty rate would be doubled today.
Currently 46.5 million people are under the federal poverty line. If we
were to look at the Census Bureau data from previous years, it has shown that
ongoing efforts to improve numbers throughout history have worked. A new study
from Columbia University shows that with the help of our safety net programs
poverty was reduced from 26% during the time of President Johnson's speech to
12% in 2012.
In fact, incredible change resulted only 10 years following the war's announcement;
our country's poverty was at a record low of 11.1%.
Yet, as safety net programs prove helpful and successful, the variable
in our fight has definitely been a wavering U.S. economy.
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