The War on Poverty's opening salvos were heard in the early 1960s under President Johnson. Combining a sense of heightened responsibility that included voting rights and desegregation with a vigorous economy, Johnson's administration sought to put into place programs that would bring about the increased economic well-being of the nation's poorest inhabitants. Under the Democratic administration and with the tacit approval of the populace, welfare programs that rivaled those of the 1930s in their scope were introduced, and a new program, Head Start, was aimed specifically at giving youngsters living in poverty the chance to get ahead. Today, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole are engaged in a war on poverty of a different kind, one that pits them against Bill Clinton and which leaves the poor in the middle.
As measured by Census Bureau statistics, Johnson's welfare program did reduce the amount of poverty in the United States as measured by Census Bureau statistics (Rich, 1993, p. A1). The total number of poor people in the mid-1980s was less than the total number of poor people in the late 1950s, although the population of the United States had increased during that period. Rich postulates that the welfare program in the United States keeps 23 million Americans out of poverty.
This argument is particularly impressive in light of the fact that Rich does not address the issue of the number of Americans who use welfare as a temporary stop-gap in order to better their economic situation to the point where they are no longer dependent on government assistance at all. Oregon has had some success in reducing the recidivism rate and that state's approach is being analyzed by others as states and the federal government seek to bring about a welfare system which not only solves the short-term problem of acute poverty, but seeks to eliminate the conditions that bring about that situation (Law, 1994, p. 14).
Head Start is a key part of the ...