The Nation
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
02/11/2020
While Trump touts unemployment rates, which have been trending down since the economic recovery of Obama’s first term, his budget does not address the soaring costs of housing, education, and health care that have created an economic crisis for most Americans.
The Poor People’s Campaign, a national movement led by poor people and their allies, has published a moral budget that demonstrates that 140 million Americans—42 percent of the nation—are no more than one $400 emergency away from not being able to pay their bills the next month. Poverty is a moral crisis in America, but the Trump administration has changed the qualifying criteria for government assistance in order to celebrate that lower numbers of people now receive food stamps, as if ceasing to count poor people somehow reduces poverty.
