Not withstanding the extensive relief from poverty, that will accrue over a lengthy period of time, by virtue of all the other reforms set forward in these papers, it is imperative that our nation commit to a new and effective program, to remove this albatross from the American landscape. The program must have two co-equal objectives: (1) To sustain all who are poor or near poor in body, mind, and spirit--accomplishing this as much as possible through self-help; (2) Providing the skills, attitudes, and job opportunities necessary to escape from and remain out of poverty.

In the new program, effectiveness will be achieved by attacking poverty from three directions: (1) Reforms of the present anti-poverty programs; (2) Community Self Achievement; (3) Special Family Boosts. The magnitudes and directions of the poverty problems can best be appreciated by quoting from a number of newspaper articles.

April 28, 1991. "The War on Poverty began a quarter-century ago, .... the enemy remains undefeated." ".... the proportion of Americans living in poverty has not changed appreciably over the past 25 years. Since the early '70s, the percentage has remained steady at about 13 percent." ".... many of the present anti-poverty programs are seriously misdirected." ".... two factors can be identified as the major contributors to the persistence of poverty: the decline of the traditional family over the past two decades and a lack of economic opportunity." "Fewer than 5 percent of working-age individuals employed full-time are classified as poor, compared with more than 27 percent for those with no job."

May 30, 1991. ".... reduction of poverty requires restoration of the moral environment in which the poor live." ".... the challenge is to energize the passive, 'dysfunctional' poor to take responsibility for themselves--to work, marry, obey the law." ".... that today's underclass poverty stems less from an absence of opportunity in society than from the inability or reluctance of individuals to seize it." ".... demoralization, not impersonal impediments, explain the non-working poor." ".... a good society requires good behavior for participation in its benefits. .... producing such behavior from the passive poor requires the enforcement of values. Enforcement must include strict child support; codes of conduct for occupants of public housing; authoritarian--let us not flinch from the word--schools that stress discipline, even dress codes, and high expectations rather than claims of victimization; work requirements for welfare recipients because work develops responsibility and hence is integral to the culture of freedom." ".... the non-working poor are depressed but dutiful, willing to observe mainstream norms like work if only government will enforce them."

September 28, 1991. "U.S. anti-poverty efforts are the least effective in the industrial world; poverty is deeper, wider and longer-lasting here than in Europe." ".... the United States does less than its Western allies to ameliorate the poverty of the poor." "In the United States .... tax and welfare transfers lifted essentially not a single poor household out of poverty." "Childhood immunizations can save 10 times their cost in future medical outlays." "A dollar spent to improve preschool education could save $4.75 in special education, crime and welfare costs. An expenditure of $765 per month for homelessness prevention and support services could eliminate the need to spend $3,000 a month to shelter a homeless family in a hotel. We can spend $6,700 a year on intensive community-based youth services or $40,000 a year to keep a youngster in a juvenile detention center."

November 5, 1991. "Food stamps, a program whose ancestry goes back to the New Deal, began in 1964, with just 424,000 participants. By 1970, 2 percent of the population received these certificates for food and other commodities. Today, 10 percent, including permanent resident aliens, are on food stamps." "What has changed is eligibility standards." ".... one in six Americans could qualify for food stamps." ".... the $19.6 billion the program cost the federal government in fiscal 1991 (vs. $550 million in 1970). Just imagine the cost when the full complement of one-in-six signs up for food stamps." "The food stamp program is one of those social outrages we embrace in the beginning out of social zeal and, when they backfire, tolerate out of uneasy conscience." "A major reason the program has been around so long is that it nourishes farmers and grocers, not to mention high-profile politicians. If we're going to feed the hungry, it would be better and more direct just to feed them at government soup kitchens."

December 20, 1991. ".... in the food stamp program a combination of fraud, mistakes, overpayments and mail losses added up to more than $1 billion last year." ".... the administrative costs of running the massive federal program doubled during the 1980s even though participation in the program declined."

April 15, 1992. "The American dream of a home and family is vanishing for families with young children as wages shrink and they fall into poverty." "We have failed to help families get out of poverty." "Children raised in poverty have a far greater chance of giving birth to babies as teens or of raising them in single-parent households."

May 13, 1992. "If our Washington leaders were serious about ameliorating urban hopelessness, they would not set budget priorities to please special interests, but to promote the national interest." "The best thing that Washington could do for America's cities, however, would be for the federal government to put its fiscal house in order."