Transcript
REBECCA BLANK: In 2007, the last year for which we have data, one in eight Americans were poor. Almost surely over the next year or two, that number is going to go up, given where we are in terms of economic recession. As you all know, poverty was not at the center of the presidential debate, but it was there around the edges, that there was regular references to it particularly by the democratic candidates. President-Elect Obama has had a very complete antipoverty strategy on his website since very, very early on in his candidacy, and I think the real key question here is, how much time and energy is this administration going to have to devote to building an antipoverty strategy in the White House? And how do they prioritize across far too many good things to do? And that's essentially what my memo tries to get at.
I suggest that there are three main goals that the administration ought to take on with regard to poverty:
One is incentivizing and supporting low-wage work. The second is ensuring an effective safety net, a more effective safety net than we have today. That's going to be increasingly important as this recession deepens. And the third is creating opportunity in high-risk neighborhoods.
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