Lyndon Johnson in A Nation Like No Other, by Speaker Newt Gingrich

On Welfare & Poverty: Announced "War on Poverty" in 1965

President Lyndon Johnson famously announced the War on Poverty. From 1965 to 2008, total spending on this "war" reached nearly $16 trillion in 2008 dollars. And what did we get in return? Soon after the War on Poverty programs were adopted, the years-long decline in American poverty suddenly stopped. By 2009 the poverty rate stood at 14.3%--about where it was when the War of Poverty began. In 1960, nearly 2/3rds of low-income households were headed by persons who worked, but by 1991, the proportion had fallen to 1/3, with only 11% working full time, year round. With the government providing so much in free welfare, many people chose not to work. Welfare recipients who go to work lose their benefits as their income rises. This is effectively an extra tax on work that must be paid on top of the usual array of federal, state, and local taxes. Source: A Nation Like No Other, by Newt Gingrich, p.109 Jun 13, 2011

The above quotations are from A Nation Like No Other Why American Exceptionalism Matters, by Speaker Newt Gingrich. Click here for main summary page. Click here for a profile of Lyndon Johnson. Click here for Lyndon Johnson on all issues.
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Page last updated: Feb 19, 2019