Generally, America has two rudimentary poverty problems. The first one is the high number of citizens with low-income work, and secondly, those who almost have no work. Most of the poor people work so hard to get out of poverty or at least to get their basic need but they still find themselves going back to poverty.
Low income work includes citizens with wages that are twice below the poverty line. Technically they are not, buy they are citizens who are really struggling to have basic needs. Their population is estimated to be about 103 million. Considering the population of the United States of America, this implies that roughly a third of the entire population is earning about $24,000 for a family with two members.
The population of people who are considered to be in deep poverty, that is, they earn income of below half of the poverty line, is estimated to be around 20 million.
President Ronald Reagan once argued that America had fought her war against poverty but lost to poverty. The facts from the statistics clearly indicate that his statement might be true. But the successful policies that have been put in place in the country suggest otherwise. One of such policies is the Social Security which have made impressive progress since it was enacted in the year 1965. Other policies that have been put in place include: Health insurance programs for children, Child Tax Credit, and Medicaid. Generally, the public policies save about 40 million American citizens from getting into poverty in the year 2010.Currently, the poverty level in America is much worse as compared to the period of 1970-2000 when the poverty level showed steady increase.
In her campaigns in last year, Hillary Clinton proposed several measures to curb the causes and impacts of poverty, among them were the policies to reduce the cost of housing, promote child tax credit, and enhance early childhood education accessibility. Clinton and her team seem to have found a significant formula to bipartisan appeal: a formula for funding that will assist a great number of poor white voters who dwell in GOP- held districts and the African-American voters who dwell in dwell in Democratic districts. Clinton asserts that, The program will target a lot of places in America, the rural poverty and the inner city poverty, coal country and Indiana country (Amira and Dan, 2016). The proposal, known as 10-20-30, has a simple arithmetic: 10 percent of funds of the federal program will be taken to the counties where about 20 percent of the countrys population has lived in poverty for a period not less than 30 years. Another idea for curbing poverty in the mind of Clinton is the microedit project. She believes that can create quick effect towards the effort of reducing the level of poverty in the country by encouraging mothers to work and get rid of individuals from poverty.it will also promote businesses, create jobs, and build capital in areas that are depressed.
On the other hand, the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump seems to be reluctant when it comes to the issue of poverty and welfare programs. The Republican Party in general is less committed to using money from the federal government in assisting the poor or even in bridging the gap that exists between the income of the poor and that of the rich. They prefer lower taxes, more civic and personal, and less responsibility in dealing with the issue of poverty. The Republican party tend to be fielding the policy of the conservative concerning self-sufficiency, free markets and liberty as means of fighting poverty and improving the mobility of the economy. The beginning of the movement is directly related to Kemp, who used to be a member of the congress during the era of President George W. Bush (President Map, 2012).
The issue of poverty is a very critical one since majority of voters all under this category. It is also an issue which has been entangled into ethnic inequality and racism. This issue is therefore significant in the determination of who will win the day come the Election Day. Each and every candidate must therefore review their policies and ensure that the suit the needs of their electorates.
Works Cited
Amira, Dan. Let the 2016 Campaign Season Begin! New York. 2016.
Collinson, Stephen; Koplan, Tal. Its official: Trump is Republcan nominee. CNN. July 19, 2016.
President Map. The New York Times. November 29, 2012.
Keith, Tamara; Montanar, Domenico. HillaryClinton Expected To Go Small With Big Announcement. NPR. 2016
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