Op-Ed

Public Safety Net in America has Succeeded but Can Be Improved

The White House Council of Economic Advisers recently faced sharp criticism for a new report that calls the government’s war on poverty “largely over and a success” and argues for safety net reforms that improve self-sufficiency. Media coverage has called the report a “phony rationale to punish the poor,” a “new argument for dismantling the social safety net,” and a “strategy to demonize the poor.”

Yet, evidence shows that reforms to encourage self-sufficiency are exactly what the safety net needs now. Criticism of the report glosses over a central and complex issue of this argument, which is how the Census Bureau measures the official poverty rate. The American Action Forum studied this and came to three fundamental conclusions.

Click here to read the full op-ed in The Hill

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