The War On Poverty Has A New Enemy... The Poor

According to Wikipedia: "The War on Poverty is the name for legislation first introduced by United Sates President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent (in 2009 it was 14.3% with another 4.6% at risk - US Census data). The speech led the US Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, which established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer the local application of federal funds targeted against poverty." The idea was to provide community service, support and opportunity, so that poor people could climb out of poverty and discover one of the Four Freedoms along the way: "Freedom from Want (for you Franklin D. Roosevelt and Norman Rockwell fans). Unfortunately, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear have both seemed to have left the building, or at least the halls of good governance these days.

Case in point... Did anyone catch House Tea Party Caucus Leader: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on ABC's Good Morning America on November 16th. Please check it out: http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2010/11/michele-bachmann-supports-tax-cut-compromise-but-not-if-tied-to-unemployment-benefits-.html. Not only were her facts incorrect and twisted to elicit fear, but she seemed to totally mis the point of George Stephanopoulos' question; "Why is it OK for the wealthiest Americans, earning over $250,000 a year to have their tax cuts extended... but for people who are out of a job, needing unemployment benefits, not to have their benefits extended?" For Rep. Bachmann extending unemployment benefits will increase our massive spending problem, but extending tax cuts will help everyone by creating jobs... anyone else confused by her logic and sense of service to her fellow citizens?

Maybe you need to read two other articles: 1) "More than 40 of the nation's millionaires have joined Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength to ask President Obama to discontinue the tax breaks established for them during the Bush administration" http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20101119/ts_yblog_theticket/millionaires-to-obama-tax-us.

2) "Despite a stubbornly sour national economy congressional members' personal wealth collectively increased by more than 16 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to a new study by the Center for Responsive Politics of federal financial disclosures released earlier this year." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/congress-richer-recession-millionaires_n_785222.html

Wow... that's right... Congress has done alright in the wealth department during these economic hard times and 40 of the wealthiest Americans don't want the tax cuts. I wonder how many Senators and Representatives are members of the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength?

Somewhere along the line, and maybe it's the fear factor that seems to be pervading every aspect of our political, social and economic lives these days... you know, that has caused our generally kind, generous and compassionate culture to become so self-serving and protectionist... but somewhere somebody got it all wrong. Maybe it's people like Rep. Bachmann who make a congressional salary of $174,000; receives approximately $25,000 annually in farm subsidies for the family farm; who's husband, Marcus runs a Christian counseling service (Bachmann and Associates, Inc) that receives approximately $10,000 annually in state funds; and, we don't know what Marcus' annual salary is... maybe these are the wealthiest Americans who are so worried and confused. Confused, because they have somehow turned the War on Poverty into the War on the Poor; making them out to be shiftless, users that want nothing more than a handout from hard working Americans.

A wise friend, The Rev. Bill James, once said to a group of seminary students that I was a part of; "No one wants to be poor. Most of the time the poor lack the skills, support systems and opportunity to get out of the cycle of poverty." I wish we would focus on teaching job and money management skills; being part of a support system; and, work to ensure opportunities to work at a living wage... as much or more than we seem to focus on those who are abusing the system (on either end by fraud or corruption). If we did, we might actually be able to take on poverty, rather than further victimizing the poor.

Want to rethink fighting poverty? Check out some of the work www.MoveTheMountain.org is doing. Also, remember your faith more than your fear... "'When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then God will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'" (found within Matthew 25:31-46)