[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H83]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1115
                   50TH ANNIVERSARY OF WAR ON POVERTY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Heck) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HECK of Washington. Mr. Speaker, 50 years ago this week, in this 
very Chamber, President Lyndon Johnson declared an ``unconditional war 
on poverty.'' The mission the President outlined was grand, but his 
goal for each and every American was modest:

       Help them fulfill their basic hopes--their hopes for a fair 
     chance to make good; their hopes for fair play under the law; 
     their hopes for a full-time job on full-time pay; their hopes 
     for a decent home for their family in a descent community; 
     their hopes for a good school for their children with good 
     teachers; and their hopes for security when faced with 
     sickness or unemployment or old age.

  Fifty years later, the results speak for themselves:
  The number of children living in poverty has dropped by 10 percent; 
the number of seniors living in poverty has plummeted by 32 percent; 
tens of millions of Americans have health insurance because of Medicare 
and Medicaid; the percentage of adults completing high school has 
skyrocketed from 56 percent to 88 percent; the share of women in the 
workforce has increased from 42 percent to 64 percent; and each and 
every single day, millions of school children go to school with full 
stomachs because of nutrition assistance.
  We have much as a Nation we can be proud of; and the best way, the 
very best way we can celebrate and honor that progress is to rededicate 
ourselves to the challenges remaining. Because the truth of the matter 
is there are still too many Americans out of work, and there are still 
too many Americans working in jobs that don't pay enough to raise a 
family, and there are still too many Americans working harder for less.
  I don't pretend that there are easy solutions to these problems. 
There is no cure-all, there is no silver bullet Congress can fire, but 
we simply cannot stand down; and we cannot, as President Johnson 
warned, ``fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless, 
senseless quarrels between Democrats and Republicans.''
  Sound familiar?
  So, Mr. Speaker, on this 50th anniversary of the start of the war on 
poverty, it comes down to one simple question we should have the 
courage to ask ourselves: Are we doing everything we reasonably can to 
strengthen the middle class and help those working to get into it? Let 
me repeat that. Are we doing everything we reasonably can to strengthen 
the middle class and help those working to get into it? And I think we 
should also have the courage to answer that question honestly, and I 
think we all know the answer. It is ``no.'' But we also all know that 
we can. That is the question of our time.
  The question of the day is whether or not we are going to help in 
this way by extending unemployment compensation benefits. The business 
case for this is exceedingly strong. The fact of the matter is that 
there are three people looking for work for every job available. The 
fact of the matter is that long-term unemployment is nearly twice as 
high as it was at each of the times that we ended emergency 
unemployment compensation over the last couple of decades. The business 
case for this is very strong, for those 1.3 million people already 
affected and the 2.6 million or so or more that will be affected in 
this calendar year. The business case is very strong.
  There are those, of course, who will suggest that there are those who 
abuse unemployment compensation. I am not going to quibble about that, 
but I am going to reject the principle that Americans don't want to 
work, don't need to work, and that we are not hardwired to work, and I 
can prove it to you. I can absolutely prove it to you. Stop right now 
and ask yourself, what is the first thing you ask someone when you meet 
them?
  ``What do you do?''
  We define ourselves by our work. It gives us pride. It helps us 
support our family. It makes our communities and neighborhoods 
stronger. Americans want to work. And when they cannot, we ought to be 
there to help them. We can, and we should.

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