Four years ago, on the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty, House Republicans led by Paul Ryan issued a report declaring that war a failure. Poverty, they asserted, hadn't fallen. Therefore, they concluded, we must slash spending on the poor.
Last week, Donald Trump's Council of Economic Advisers issued a new report on poverty, recognizing what most experts in the field have said: The standard poverty measure is badly flawed, and a better measure shows substantial progress. In fact, these advisers went so far as to assert that poverty is no longer a problem. (Do these people ever get out into the real world?)
Read Full Article »