Poverty in America: Rhetoric vs. Reality — Transcript

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1. 0:00two Americas have you heard that one
2. 0:02lately but is poverty in America as bad
3. 0:04as some politicians say it is in this
4. 0:07week's edition of Heritage and focus
5. 0:09analyst Robert Rector who played a
6. 0:11crucial role in crafting welfare reform
7. 0:13legislation in the 1990s gives his
8. 0:15perspective on the recent poverty data
9. 0:17released by the Census Bureau I'm Matt
10. 0:20Strait and this is Heritage in
11. 0:23[Music]
12. 0:28focus
13. 0:33the Census Bureau tells us each year
14. 0:35that there are about 37 million people
15. 0:37living in poverty when the average
16. 0:39citizen hears that they think that these
17. 0:41are people that don't have enough food
18. 0:42to eat or don't have clothes for their
19. 0:44kids or so forth but actually from the
20. 0:46government's own number uh nearly all
21. 0:49poor households have air conditioning
22. 0:51microwave ovens two-thirds of them have
23. 0:53cable TV if you ask the poor parent did
24. 0:57you have enough food for your family
25. 0:59they will say yes yes were you able to
26. 1:00obtain medical care for your family yes
27. 1:02were you do you have enough money for
28. 1:04all your essential needs they will say
29. 1:06yes uh there's just a huge gap between
30. 1:08the actual living standards of
31. 1:11households that have cable TV and plenty
32. 1:14of food and are not crowded and are not
33. 1:16in dilapidated conditions compared to
34. 1:18what people are thinking about when they
35. 1:20hear 37 million people are
36. 1:28poor live in official poverty in the
37. 1:31United States really for two reasons low
38. 1:34levels of Parental work and a lack of
39. 1:36marriage the typical family that has
40. 1:39poor children in it the parents work
41. 1:41only about 16 hours a week that's why
42. 1:44they're poor they don't have they're not
43. 1:46working they're not earning very much if
44. 1:48you were to raise the work in those
45. 1:50families so that at least one parent
46. 1:52worked full-time full year two-thirds of
47. 1:55those kids would automatically be raised
48. 1:57out of poverty the second major reason
49. 1:59why we have of children in poverty in
50. 2:00the United States is that 38% of all
51. 2:03children are born outside wedlock if the
52. 2:05mothers were married to the actual
53. 2:07fathers of those children immediately
54. 2:1075% of those children would be raised
55. 2:12out of poverty we have a welfare system
56. 2:14that rewards non-w work and penalizes
57. 2:17marriage we're pushing people further
58. 2:19into poverty we need to change that turn
59. 2:21the whole system
60. 2:22[Music]
61. 2:28around of this 37 some million poor
62. 2:31people in the United States a quarter of
63. 2:34those are immigrants and their minor
64. 2:35children one out of 10 poor people
65. 2:38identified by the government is actually
66. 2:41an illegal immigrant uh we are importing
67. 2:44IM uh poverty from abroad through both
68. 2:46legal and illegal immigration channels
69. 2:49the reason that immigrants tend to be
70. 2:51poor is that uh about a third of them
71. 2:54lack a high school degree among illegals
72. 2:5650 to 60% La a high school degree and
73. 3:00we're just bringing in hundreds of
74. 3:02thousands of additional poor people into
75. 3:04the United States and making them part
76. 3:06of our society each year if we seriously
77. 3:09want to reduce poverty in the United
78. 3:10States we need to remove the illegal
79. 3:13immigrants who are one out of 10 poor
80. 3:15people but also substantially raise the
81. 3:18skill level of future legal immigrants
82. 3:20coming to the
83. 3:26us when you look at the typical poor
84. 3:29child in the United States if it's a
85. 3:31poor boy by the time he reaches age 18
86. 3:34or 19 he will be in fact on average one
87. 3:37inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than
88. 3:39the gis who stormed the beaches of
89. 3:41Normandy in World War II he'll be taller
90. 3:43and heavier than the average middle-
91. 3:45class American Teenager back in the 50s
92. 3:47the age of of Elvis uh if you look at
93. 3:50the average nutriment intakes of poor
94. 3:53children they are virtually
95. 3:54indistinguishable from upper middle
96. 3:56class children they re consume about 200
97. 3:59% a recommended Norm of protein which is
98. 4:03the most expensive nutrient uh the
99. 4:06principal problem facing poor Americans
100. 4:08is not a lack of food but in fact too
101. 4:10much food they're much more likely to be
102. 4:12overweight than middle class
103. 4:14Americans as you just heard the data
104. 4:16doesn't add up upper class and poor
105. 4:18preschoolers have virtually identical
106. 4:20nutrient intakes furthermore 10% of poor
107. 4:23people in America live here illegally in
108. 4:26short the census bureau's poverty data
109. 4:28doesn't accurately reflect living
110. 4:29conditions and we need to remember for
111. 4:31those who do live in poverty that
112. 4:33marriage and hard work are better
113. 4:35Solutions than bigger government
114. 4:37programs that don't work I'm Matt Strait
115. 4:40and this is Heritage in
116. 4:42[Music]
117. 4:47focus for more information log on to
118. 4:50heritage.org