See the precise moment when progress reducing poverty ended

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A chart that demonstrates politicians are pro-poverty. Retweet


Thanks to Professor Mark J. Perry for this chart.

We’ve written Congress about this chart using our Cut Spending campaign. The hardwired message for that campaign reads simply…

Cut federal spending.

You can copy or edit the following for your personal instructions to Congress…

It’s time to eliminate all federal poverty programs. My argument is powerful and brief.

First, assistance can be given at the state or local level, or even better, by voluntary institutions. Federal programs aren’t close enough to the problem. We’re spending a lot of money on unnecessary, distant bureaucracies.

Two, federal poverty programs don’t work. I can prove it. This chart provides compelling evidence — http://bit.ly/29IjS5c

GREAT PROGRESS was made in reducing poverty prior to 1968. Most of that progress happened prior to 1965. Recall that President Johnson launched his war on poverty in 1964.

If the Johnson programs were actually good, then you would have expected progress to accelerate. Instead, the progress stopped. Isn’t is sensible to ask, why did this happen?

Now, think about how you would act if you saw a chart showing something similar for the voluntary sector? You would instantly call it “market failure.” You’d seek to regulate or federalize that activity.

But what do you do when there’s evidence of state failure? The answer appears to be NOTHING. You do NOTHING. Like cancer, the failure remains, eats away our substance. It even spreads and grows.

This is hypocrisy. End federal poverty programs. They belong at the state or local level, or in the hands of the voluntary sector. I will be watching what you do.

–END OF SAMPLE LETTER–

Thank you for being an ACTIVE DC Downsizer,

Jim Babka & Perry Willis

Downsize DC