This Week in ‘Nation’ History: Fifty Years Later, the War on Poverty Must Be Renewed

http://www.thenation.com/blog/177722/week-nation-history-fifty-years-later-war-poverty-must-be-renewed

On January 8, 1964, nearly fifty years ago, President Lyndon Baines Johnson declared in his first State of the Union address that his new administration “today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” The Nation was immediately enthusiastic and supportive, writing in its lead editorial, “The Rediscovery of Poverty,” just after the speech:

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the State of the Union address was that Mr. Johnson not only spoke about poverty, but spoke at length, emphatically, and with the apparent intention of actually meaning to alleviate it. The second most important aspect, gearing into the first, was the suggestion that the money was there for such a program, that it could be hacked out of the military program, and that Mr. Johnson proposed to swing the pickax. All this was said with a Rooseveltian resolution, sincerity and directness that exhilarated some listeners as much as it frightened others—those others who feel that poverty should be neither seen nor heard…

What is amazing is that it took fifteen years to get out from under the incubus of the cold war and to show a decent concern for the victims of industrialism. Now—it is as true as it is hackneyed—words must be followed by deeds. That is not up to the President alone, but he has supplied the words, and they are good.

not so amazing the right wing was not for giving anything to anybody today they deny disaster relief until they can see how it will be payed for, meanwhile Americans die and lose their homes a and jobs but still republican congress got find the money to replace it.

there are many places that are not necessary and would not be hurt by cuts military tops that list, tax cuts and loopholes stay while they vote to take food stamps from children and working poor and vets they claim to support.

our problems are republican born and republican nurtured. 2014 is the next time we have to turn this around and stop the third world dictator right wing of the gov't recognize

There could be no more honorable or productive way for President Obama and his congressional Democratic allies to mark the fiftieth anniversary of President Johnson’s declaration than to rededicate themselves to passing legislation—a minimum wage increase, universal pre-school access, reversal of recent cuts in food stamps (and expansions beyond the previous levels), job training assistance, and extensions of unemployment insurance, to name a few—which would at least signal a renewal of what President Johnson acknowledged fifty years ago would “not be a short or easy struggle…but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest Nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it.”

remember he said "YES WE CAN" not "YES I CAN"  time for us to pay the correct piper and not republican defiance.