“The failure of the first Barack Obama administration to really deliver on a new War on Poverty and a new language to explain these societal challenges in some ways provided the fuel that led to the Occupy Movement a few years later. And, while Occupy was a somewhat transitory phenomenon, many of the activist groups that emerged during this period are still out there, and still working on reshaping the political debate around taxes, around welfare, around government assistance to the poor, around debt relief for students, and so on.” WarPoliticalLanguageChallengesPoorPovertyStudentsTaxesDebateBarackWelfarePhenomenonActivistWar On Poverty Author:Sasha Abramsky
“One of the most durable successes of the war on poverty was to dramatically reduce the number of elderly poor in America. That's still true today. But, by contrast, child poverty has shot up over the last few years: A decade ago, about 16 percent of children in America were poor - which is a shockingly high percentage. But it's not as shocking as today, when we see that 22 percent of kids live in poverty.” ChildrenWarKidsTodayPoorPovertyContrastWar On Poverty Author:Sasha Abramsky
“I recognize that individuals and organizations with tremendous financial clout and open access to the political system in the post-Citizens United era, are going to fight tooth and nail against a reinvigorated War on Poverty. But I also think that the elections of 2012 showed the limits of big money in politics, and the willingness of a majority of voters to really think these issues through for themselves.” ThinkingWarPoliticalFightingIndividualPovertyElectionFinancialWillingnessWar On Poverty Author:Sasha Abramsky