Barbara Lee Responds to Census Poverty Report
Renews Call for Goal of Cutting Poverty in Half by 2017
(Oakland, CA) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), co-founder of the Congressional Out-of-Poverty Caucus, released the following statement is response to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual report on poverty, which found that the number of people living in poverty in the United States remains unchanged and that the number people without health insurance rose by more than two million:
“It is completely unacceptable that, in the richest nation in the world, there are almost 37 million people living in poverty, and it is extremely troubling that the President and Congress have not made addressing this issue is not a national priority,” said Lee. “This report underscores the degree to which the Bush administration’s economic policies have favored the wealthy to the detriment of poor and middle income Americans.”
In addition to co-founding the Out-of-Poverty Caucus, Lee has introduced a number of measures related to poverty, including most recently a resolution designed to set a national goal of cutting poverty in the U.S. in half over the next ten years.
“Eradicating poverty needs to be a national priority, and the best way to do that is to set some measurable goals. If we are serious about this, we need to commit to cutting the number of people living in poverty in this country in half over the next ten years.”
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