America's poor becoming more destitute under Trump: U.N. expert

[sandensea]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Reuters

Poverty in the United States is extensive and is deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor, while rewarding the rich, a U.N. human rights investigator has found.

Philip Alston, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, called on U.S. authorities to provide solid social protection and address underlying problems, rather than "punishing and imprisoning the poor".

While welfare benefits and access to health insurance are being slashed, President Donald Trump's tax reform has awarded "financial windfalls" to the mega-rich and large companies, further increasing inequality, he said in a report.

U.S. policies since President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s have been "neglectful at best", he said. "But the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship," Alston said.

Almost 41 million people live in poverty, 18.5 million of them in extreme poverty, and children account for one in three poor, he said.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/americas-poor-becoming-more-destitute-under-trump-un-expert/ar-AAy8FOA

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LBJ during his visit of West Virginia conditions in 1964. One of the GOP's great feats since then has been to turn the very people who benefited against him (and Democrats).

[jayschool2013]

1. This quote

"There is no magic recipe for eliminating extreme poverty and each level of government must make its own good-faith decisions. At the end of the day, however, particularly in a rich country like the United States, the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power," Alston said.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The right-wing has howled wildly against the UN for decades, to mold hatred for them.

Any statements it makes advocating for peace, support for abused, broken populations are loathed.

Republicans have worked steadily to create irrational hostility for all organizations which strive to advance concerns for any country or people beyond the US and US white citizens.

This announcement will be greeted with ridicule, and spite, although everyone knows it is true.

How long must this continue?

Good for the UN in not looking the other way.

Thank you, sandensea.

[pangaia]

3. One prblem is 'eberyone' does not know it is true.

Tghe stupids... the ones always being targeted by propaganda.

[Judi Lynn]

4. They blow straight through their entire lives never knowing they've always been wrong & stupid. n/t

[sandensea]

7. And then, of course, you have that old RW standby: Self-righteousness.

"The poor are lazy...dirty...stupid...a nuisance...mostly dark-skinned (and thereby sub-human)...etc."

That's a big part of how the Bushes, Trumps, Orbans, and Macris of the world get elected. Human nature, unfortunately.

[flibbitygiblets]

5. Punishing and imprisoning the poor is their raison d'etre. That needs to be clear to all.

It's a hell of a good message for Democrats to consider, because it's provably true, and the only way to get people to vote in their best interests.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

6. Unfortunately, many of those affected voted for Donnie Two Scoops.

#MAGA is focused on increasing the wealth of the very rich at the well-being of the poor (and the rest of us). Reagan started the process of disassembling the social safety net. Each Republican president and congress has made that their main focus, next to building the military, of course. Trump is just the latest incarnation of that misguided policy, except as a sociopath he has nothing -- not a single drop of humanity -- to hold him back.

For God's sake, he's yanking babies and children from the arms of their mothers!

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Locking - duplicate thread

of https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142073063 . Please continue discussion there. Thanks.