Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson issued a clarion call for his fellow citizens to mount a “war on poverty” across America. Yet half a century on, the political establishment remains as philosophically divided as ever on how to eradicate the problem.
The scale of the political divisions over how to tackle poverty can be gauged by events in Congress this week. The Democratic-controlled Senate looks set to pass a bill that would extend benefits for the long-term jobless past 26 weeks – a routine measure during a labour market downturn. However, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives looks equally certain to reject it. At the same time, the House looks poised to make roughly $9bn in cuts to food stamps at a time when the programme is helping millions of Americans avoid hunger.
All this would suggest that Capitol Hill’s battle over the war on poverty looks set to continue. Yet there is more scope than is commonly supposed for American libertarians and liberals to agree measures to resolve it.