[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 332]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      NEXT STEP IN WAR ON POVERTY

  (Mr. CLYBURN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, in 1964, when President Johnson declared 
war on poverty, this, the richest Nation in the world, had a poverty 
rate of 19 percent. By 1973, 9 years later, that rate had been brought 
down to 11 percent. We were definitely winning the war on poverty.
  Unfortunately, too many politicians found success running down the 
achievements of the war on poverty. Scapegoating ``welfare queens'' 
furthered a narrative that the war on poverty was not worth fighting. 
But nothing could be further from the truth.
  For example, Medicare and Medicaid, two poverty programs, made a 
difference, a tremendous difference, in the health security of older 
Americans. These two antipoverty programs have reduced the poverty rate 
of our senior citizens from over 30 percent to less than 10 percent.
  The Congressional Black Caucus' 10-20-30 initiative targets 
communities of need with effective infrastructure investments. This 
proven approach was pioneered in the Recovery Act of 2009. Expanding 
this effective poverty fighter should be our next step in the long 
march of the war on poverty.

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