Edwards speaks out about poverty and congressional politics

[LiveLiberally]

I posted a brief note about this on another thread but it really deserves its own post & more attention -- especially for those who share Edwards' deep commitment to end poverty and socio-economic inequality and who think Congress has failed to provide leadership or meaningful solutions.

The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law just issued a report that ranks members of congress according to their support in 2007 for anti-poverty legislation. A brief excerpt from the report:

"Poverty is everywhere in America, but it is interesting that in states with the highest concentrations of poverty, the Congressional delegations seem least interested in supporting initiatives that fight poverty," said John Bouman, president of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, which released the study. "This appears deeper than simply opposing spending. A member could have opposed any of the measures we analyzed that called for new spending and still could have voted to support half of the poverty-fighting measures on our list."

For the full report go to: http://www.povertylaw.org//advocacy/publications/2007-scorecard

Edwards discussed the report in a news conference a few days ago, stating:

"We can get the national leadership and we can get the congressional leadership we need," Edwards said. "But first voters need to be educated as to who is doing the work and who is not."

For more on Edwards' comments see: http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080311/NEWS02/803110321/1003/NEWS02

[bobbolink]

1. thanks for posting that good article. I"m still concerned that the effort is only

towards "working poor", and still going along with the conservative meme.

There badly needs to be a NEW understanding of poverty!

I appreciate Sanders words on this!

Interesting that Leahy received an A rating. I'll have to pay more attention to him.

Thanks again! :thumbsup:

[LiveLiberally]

2. Thanks for the reply -- I was surprised to...

see that Vermont's legislators, for example, ranked so high in the report. What didn't surprise me was their conclusion that the states which had the highest rates of poverty had congressional delegations which ranked among the lowest in voting for anti-poverty measures. What this says to me -- and I don't want to generalize too much because I know that California is not New Jersey etc...-- is that the larger the percentage of the poor in a given district, the EASIER it is for their representative to lump them together as a permanent underclass that is somehow beyond politics to solve. Talk about the voiceless.

[bobbolink]

3. This deserves more views!!

:thumbsup: