Targeting Poverty: Aim at a Bull’s Eye

The Center on Law and Social Policy recently released Targeting Poverty: Aim at a Bull’s Eye, a report that discusses why poverty is emerging as a political issue, why it is an issue that is above partisan politics, and what efforts are underway across the country to codify poverty target legislation.

In its report, CLASP suggests several reasons why poverty is emerging on political agendas including the news coverage of Katrina, the fear by those who are not poor that they may become poor, and that the gap between the rich and the poor is worrying everyone from Alan Greenspan to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

CLASP also makes the case that poverty is purple—or in other words, it is not an issue relegated to red states or to blue states, but rather, that it exists in all states. As the report points out, “Of the ten states with the highest child poverty rate, six have Republican and four have Democratic Governors.”

Perhaps the most interesting part of the report is the section that consolidates news about efforts across the country by state legislators, mayors, and activists to pass legislation that would commit their respective state or city to reducing poverty by a certain amount, by a specific date. For instance, Connecticut passed a law to reduce child poverty by 50 percent by the year 2014. California has a similar bill awaiting Governor Schwarzenegger’s signature. Mayors from cities all over the country—New York, Miami, and Milwaukee to name a few—are declaring poverty to be a central issue facing their communities.

As the report rightly concludes, “Poverty targets signify political commitment.” This kind of legislation moves policymakers beyond the nihilistic question of whether or not we can do anything to reduce poverty, to the much more worthwhile question of what must we do to meet such an important goal.