Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Which Party ACTUALLY Reduced Poverty?

From the current Tapped, the following quote:

In 1960, pre-Great Society, poverty loomed at 22.2 percent. By 1969, after Lyndon Johnson's supposedly "failed" war was waged, it had nearly halved, plummeting to 12.1 percent. At the end of Jimmy Carter's term, the poverty rate was 11.7 percent. Ronald Reagan, who famously said that we fought the war on poverty and poverty won, set about proving it, pushing the poverty rate back up to 12.8 percent. His successor, George H.W. Bush, presided over a recession that saw it shoot to 15.1 percent. Along comes Bill Clinton and, after eight years of Democratic policies and economic growth, we see poverty fall back to 11.3 percent. And now? George W. Bush has boosted it back up to 12.7 percent. My, he really is Reaganesque.

Bear things like this when you hear right-wing Republican lies about the ineffectiveness of "liberal big government" anti-poverty efforts. Democratic policies work. The Republicans remain, overwhelmingly, the passionate enemies of the poor. Specifically:

They lie repeatedly about the "harmful" minimum wage.

They lie when they say no adult with a family is trying to live on
minimum wage.

They support the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries.
(Michael Dell, of Dell Computers, big Bush supporter, worth $30
billion, outsources his tech support to India. Surprised?)

They oppose extending health care insurance coverage to the poor.

They support toughening the bankruptcy laws while loosening up
government restrictions on their corporate contributors.

The Republicans have been waging class warfare on the poor for decades. We need to remind America of this fact again and again and again.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What's the technical definition of poverty? Just curious...

Joseph Miller said...

In the 48 contiguous states, about $19,500 per year for a family of 4. It's higher in Alaska and Hawaii.