Public safety net in America has succeeded but can be improved
“The White House Council of Economic Advisers recently faced sharp criticism for a new report that calls the government’s war on poverty ‘largely over and a success’ and argues for safety net reforms that improve self-sufficiency. Media coverage has called the report a ‘phony rationale to punish the poor,’ a ‘new argument for dismantling the social safety net,’ and a ‘strategy to demonize the poor.’ Yet, evidence shows that reforms to encourage self-sufficiency are exactly what the safety net needs now. Criticism of the report glosses over a central and complex issue of this argument, which how the Census Bureau measures the official poverty rate. The American Action Forum studied this and came to three fundamental conclusions.”