Asset Building Highlighted in Strategy to End Poverty in America
Blog Post
March 31, 2011
On Tuesday, Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) gave the keynote address at an event organized by the Center for American Progress and Women of Color Policy Network on Measuring Our Progress in Reducing U.S. Poverty. In a political environment where existing poverty fighting tools are fending off rescissions in the name of deficit reduction, Congressman McDermott insisted that, as the wealthiest nation on Earth, the U.S. has an obligation to assist those families most in need and support their progress into the middle-class until poverty has been eliminated. To make progress toward this goal, Congressman McDermott affirmed the need for a multifaceted approach that includes, among others, savings and assets, both in measuring the need...
“We need to understand whether we're moving in the right direction – away from having an increasing underclass, toward opportunity and security. We need a measure of asset poverty – of how much wealth people have, and what's needed to avoid hardship and pursue opportunities."
...and formulating policy solutions:
“...Longer-term investments can reduce poverty and increase opportunity and mobility. These have long been neglected in federal spending priorities, which is so often limited to short-term needs... it's time to promote saving amongst the low-income, including by relaxing the means-tests for public assistance – as legislation I'm developing will do – and creating Child Savings Accounts and Individual Development Accounts."
We've been making similar arguments around here and are glad to hear the message being delivered from someone who is so clearly committed to these issues, and (especially) in a position to move us in that direction. To read more of Congressman McDermott's speech, click here or to see it for yourself, check it out below.