Mazie Hirono: “50 years ago today President Johnson declared a war on poverty. He said: Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the…”

“50 years ago today President Johnson declared a war on poverty. He said: Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing. He proposed a broad range of new initiatives to address these deeper failures: Medicare, Head Start, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Higher Education Act, and housing and transportation programs. These initiatives have given millions of people more opportunities to succeed and help them get back on their feet when they stumble. President Johnson called on Congress to take up these proposals because, he said, ``many Americans live on the outskirts of hope. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity.'' That is still our task today. We have come a long way since 1964, but clearly the fight is not over. For years our American dream has been that if people work hard and play by the rules, they will succeed. However, the divide between the very rich and the very poor is as wide as it has ever been. Wages have stagnated, and more and more middle-class families struggle to get ahead and provide opportunities for their children. We have to carry on the work that began 50 years ago and update it for the needs of our modern economy.…”