Eradicating Poverty
While poverty in the United States dropped steadily throughout the nineties, since 2000 it has increased dramatically. The policy of paying for tax cuts for the wealthy by cutting funding for programs for our most vulnerable communities has produced predictable results.
Today, there are more than 36.5 million people -- the equivalent of the entire population of the state of California -- living in poverty in wealthiest country in the world, more than 5 million more than there were just seven years ago.
The impact of this growing poverty is disproportionately falling on minorities. Since 2000, median income has decreased slightly for non-Hispanic whites, but significantly for blacks and Hispanics. Almost one quarter of African Americans and one in five Latinos live in poverty, compared to 8 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 10 percent of Asians.
The cycle of poverty puts the American dream out of reach for millions of our nation's citizens. A child who grows up in poverty is less likely to receive adequate nutrition, medical or dental care or a quality education. Parents who are worrying where the next meal is coming from aren't helping their children with their homework. Hardworking families find that they just cannot get ahead. The playing field is not level, but the issue does not even register for most politicians.
The truth is that poverty like this is the predictable outcome of a Republican vision of government. Americans are increasingly realizing that electing people who run for office saying that the government can't solve the nation's problems will give you a government incapable of solving the nation's problems.
Nowhere was that clearer than hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina marked a crossroads in our nation's history because it pulled back the curtain and exposed not only the consequences of the hidden poverty crisis in the richest nation in the world. It also exposed the bankruptcy of the Republican vision of government.
The disaster caused by Katrina was not simply the result of the Bush administration's turning our nation's emergency management system into a political patronage operation. Katrina exposed the Bush administration and the Republican Party's tragic failure to acknowledge the massive structural crisis that poverty and inequality pose for our nation and their stubborn refusal to conceive of any constructive role for our government in addressing it.
It is time to start moving in the right direction again, and Barbara believes that making the eradication of poverty a national priority is the first step toward restoring a government that truly works for all Americans and gives everyone an equal opportunity to succeed.
She took the food stamp challenge -- living for a week on $3 per day -- to highlight the challenge ordinary Americans face every day and to rally support for increasing funding for the nutrition title of the Farm Bill. She's also a champion for education, fighting for programs designed to stop drop outs, keep at-risk kids in school and help them get to college. And she has introduced landmark legislation that would set a goal of cutting poverty in half over the next decade.
As long as our nation's leaders proceed from a belief in what government cannot do, we will not have a government worthy of the people it is designed to serve. That is why Barbara and One Voice will continue the fight to make eradicating poverty a priority and fulfilling the vision of a government as good as the people it serves.
