the safety net. what they believe is that poor folks need a pep talk and a kick in the butt and that s the way you reduce poverty without looking at some of the structural issues. it s wonderful eric cantor says schools are needed. that s the case. but then he done want to provide funding for schools. people need jobs, we need to raise the minimum wage, we need to extend one employment, there are specific things we need to do to lift people out of poverty. it s not rocket science. you know, maria, the washington post obtained a memo that house republican leaders sent to rank-and-file members. it tells lawmakers to be emphatic towards the unemployed. i want says be empathetic towards the unemployed and to be that for every american out of work it s a personal crisis. this was you know kind of
disease, head start, daycare on the front start, welfare on the back start, head start, the appalachian regional council. the budget that was designed to lift people out of poverty shifted the war in vietnam. even the recent history we have a budget surplus, the $2 trillion expenditure in iraq we lost money and lives. we have other contempt for poor people and we bail out the banks and giving the insurance companies more customers and bail out the auto industry but what poorer are getting poorer and the mitdle class is sinking. we need to address a plan for urban reconstruction. congresswoman, what i really want is as people go through tonight remembering president johnson s speech 50 years ago, there ought not be given the
that is so true, reverend. ah, because of the president, president johnson envisioned, ah, what he called unconditional war on poverty. that rhetoric showed his high allies but unconditional didn t mean there were some people who would be poor. what it has meant those ah, if you look at the census bureau poverty methodology which is considered the most reliable it has taken 50% it has reduced poverty by 50% and i think that s pretty good when you consider that the rest was supposed to be done by the economy. if anything, the poverty programs have been are now doing duty that president johnson never intended them to do. it s the economy. it was supposed these programs were supposed to be there until the economy did its work. but frankly, reverend, we had republican presidents most of the time since president johnson and war on poverty and doing something about poverty was not
for years the gop has attacked the poor as takers. as welfare queens. as the 47%. but now suddenly republicans love the poor. the biggest names in the party are rolling out their big anti-poverty agendas. let s see what they have to offer. take it away congressman cantor. safe and effective schools for all children isn t and should not be a political issue. it especially matters to those living in poverty who are desperate for a lifeline. hear that, america? congressman cantor wants to help educate poor children. forget that he backed cuts to head start. or that he s voted against pell grants for students. or that he wants to cut billions from the food stamp programs.
misperception to americans that this has been a 50 year fight by big government. in fact, barely before president johnson got out of office we saw the war against poverty diverted and there s been a battle ever since just to try to salvage some of the war and the programs in the war on poverty. that s the point, reverend. we are now struggling to save what president johnson did. what he did was to build on the new deal, ah, a safety net program to make it more into a safety net. we still don t have the kind of safety net they have in europe for those same 50 years and when we can t get unemployment insurance for people who have been unemployed for seven months or more, most of whom have skills, they are not even among the very poor, when we re struggling to get food stamps