Why Politicians From Both Parties Ignore the Poor
“At a rally in Iowa in late June, President Donald Trump responded to criticism of his millionaire- and billionaire-studded cabinet by sayingthat while he loves both rich and poor people, ‘I just don’t want a poor person’ running the economy. Trump’s comment was offensive. But it was also a rare instance of a politician actually mentioning the poor. A higher percentage of Americans—14.8 percent—were living in poverty in 2014 than during the late 1960s and early 1970s. And extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $2 a day, has roughly doubled from 1996 to 2012, according to Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer’s book $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.”