Republicans Have Shown They Don't Care About Poverty

Back in 1959, the poverty rate was extremely high in the United States -- standing at 22.4% of the population. President Johnson decided to do something about that, and passed his War on Poverty program. This program was pretty successful (in spite of what Republicans would have you believe), and by the 70's the poverty rate had been reduced to below 12% (a drop of about 10 points).

But with the election of President Reagan in 1980, the Republicans began dismantling those War on Poverty programs -- and the poverty rate began to climb again. The only time it has been below 12% since then was at the end of President Clinton's administration (when it was 11.8%). It began to climb again in the Bush administration -- climbing to 12.7% by 2004, and then to 14.3% after the recession hit. The rate currently sits at 15% (the highest level since the early 60's). This is primarily due to Republican obstruction to any attempts to fix the economy, create new jobs, or help those in poverty.

The Republicans will tell you that they care about poverty, and that they have the solution to reducing poverty in this country. That solution is to give tax cuts to the rich and tax subsidies to giant corporations, and to cut funding for social programs that help hurting Americans. They will tell you that this will create jobs. But it doesn't. Although it has fattened the bank accounts of the rich and the corporations (with the corporations currently sitting on trillions of unspent dollars), it has not resulted in significant job creation. The only jobs being created are low-wage service jobs (which would have been created regardless of the tax level).

The truth is that the Republicans only care about poverty if it affect their rich and corporate friends (because they don't want the rich and the corporations to have to fund any poverty relief programs). As long as they can continue to cut social programs while cutting taxes for the rich, they couldn't care less what the poverty rate is.

This is illustrated by the states that have the largest percentages of poverty (shown in the chart below). Note that almost all of the states with the highest poverty levels are ruled by Republicans. It begs the question -- if the Republican economic policies are so good, why do the states where they have been initiated the most have the highest levels of poverty? This is true even in the celebrated "economic miracle" of Texas, where the poverty rate is 17% (a full two points higher than the national average).

The fact is that cutting taxes for the rich and cutting social programs for those hurting do not create jobs or lower poverty. It just makes the economy of those states suffer and the poverty in those states grow.

The situation is just the opposite in the states where the poverty rates are the lowest. Most of those states are ruled by Democrats -- and those states have initiated a fairer system of taxation and made an effort to fight poverty, and those efforts have worked to reduce poverty well below the national average.

While I applaud those states for following economic policies that reduce poverty, it is not enough. We need a national economic policy to reduce poverty in the country as a whole. A national poverty rate of 15% is a disgrace, and should shame every decent American. We are still the richest nation in the world, and we could easily afford to cut that poverty rate significantly (if not eliminate it entirely). But we will not do it as long as we follow policies that give more to the rich, and less to everyone else.

The Republicans will not allow any alteration of our current failed economic policies (that are still based on the silly "trickle-down" theory). As long as they remain in control of the House of Representatives the economy will suffer, jobs will not be created, and poverty will grow. Why? because they don't care about those in poverty, or anyone else outside of the rich (their only real constituency).