War on Poverty - Cesar de los Santos

Rector, Robert. “The War on Poverty Has Been a Colossal Fop.” The Daily Signal. September                                                               …...16, 2014. Web. March 2, 2016

Summary:

“The War on Poverty Has Been a Colossal Flop” is an article posted to The Daily Signal that shows how author Robert Rector sees the failed attempt of the War on Poverty. He believes that the War on Poverty idea brought forth by President Lyndon B. Johnson over 50 years ago has missed its mark and only improved the poor’s standard of living rather than help their financial status. He explains how this has costed tax payer and government spending to skyrocket. To fix this, Rector believes that we should reform our welfare policies and structure them around LBJ’s original goal of increasing American’s ability to support themselves, not support them through government checks and food stamps.  

Evaluation:

            The article “The War on Poverty Has Been a Colossal Flop” is useful because it not only informs the reader about what the War on Poverty was meant to do, but it even provides a solution to get the government to get it right. Author Robert Rector is a leading national authority on poverty and the U.S. welfare system. In the article, Rector provides a detailed analysis of what LBJ intended to do with the War on Poverty, he shows a graph and detailed statistics of the many luxuries that today’s “poor” people have, and how that differs the original goal of eliminating poverty in America. Rector’s judgments about the government improving the living condition of the poor instead of helping them out of poverty shows he is biased against current government welfare programs.