Eighties to Present The Great Society programs continued to impact the lives of many Americans throughout the seventies and even up to present times. The eighties brought about a changes in politics and attitude toward ending poverty. There was a strong backlash to the liberal reforms that accompanied the Great Society and conservatism began to gain traction across the country and Ronald Regan was elected president. According to Walsh, more than 33 million more people became poorer under President Regan(Walsh, 1989). Why is this so? Once in office, In 1981 he cut $35 billion in Social and cultural programs, he gutted many poverty agencies. He eliminated 300,000 public jobs; and slashed the budgets for programs such as Medicare,
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Then were may critics of this reform who thought it would not work and increase poverty( Ponnuru,2001). There were noticeable drops in the poverty rate for African Americans & Hispanics. During the period of 1994 to 2000 tho welfare rolls dropped by nearly 8.5 million people( Ponnuru). The welfare reform that passed was an effort by President Clinton and Republicans, many Democrats though it was harsh and mean spirited because of its work requirements and expiration of benefits. However this legislation regardless of how some felted about it illustrated what government can do through …show more content…
It is widely known that poverty guideline were first developed by Mollie Orshanky back in the 1960's. Although her definition has been tweak it is still the prevailing measurement of poverty. Her definition of poverty is mostly based on household food consumption and a minimum adequate diet ( Wirtz,2006). There should be no surprises as to the number of critics who have deride the way the government continues to measure poverty . According to Meyer & Sullivan they concluded that using consumption based measures instead of income based measure of poverty better reflects trends over time(Meyer & Sullivan, 2012). There is some validity to this thesis , in observing what individuals do with their resources is more likely to be a better barometer of their well being. The desire to change how poverty is measure has even motivated some in Congress to take action. In 1995 the National Academy of Science(NAS) issued a report that was requested by Congress in 1992. The NAS gave its recommendation but they were never adopted by the Census Bureau. The NAS Finding developed measures they felt would more accurately reflect material well being. According to Primus, the NAS measures differ from the census in key areas ; how income is defined, whose income is counted , the poverty threshold, equivalence scale used to adjust households' size, and
Then were may critics of this reform who thought it would not work and increase poverty( Ponnuru,2001). There were noticeable drops in the poverty rate for African Americans & Hispanics. During the period of 1994 to 2000 tho welfare rolls dropped by nearly 8.5 million people( Ponnuru). The welfare reform that passed was an effort by President Clinton and Republicans, many Democrats though it was harsh and mean spirited because of its work requirements and expiration of benefits. However this legislation regardless of how some felted about it illustrated what government can do through …show more content…
It is widely known that poverty guideline were first developed by Mollie Orshanky back in the 1960's. Although her definition has been tweak it is still the prevailing measurement of poverty. Her definition of poverty is mostly based on household food consumption and a minimum adequate diet ( Wirtz,2006). There should be no surprises as to the number of critics who have deride the way the government continues to measure poverty . According to Meyer & Sullivan they concluded that using consumption based measures instead of income based measure of poverty better reflects trends over time(Meyer & Sullivan, 2012). There is some validity to this thesis , in observing what individuals do with their resources is more likely to be a better barometer of their well being. The desire to change how poverty is measure has even motivated some in Congress to take action. In 1995 the National Academy of Science(NAS) issued a report that was requested by Congress in 1992. The NAS gave its recommendation but they were never adopted by the Census Bureau. The NAS Finding developed measures they felt would more accurately reflect material well being. According to Primus, the NAS measures differ from the census in key areas ; how income is defined, whose income is counted , the poverty threshold, equivalence scale used to adjust households' size, and